To leave or not to leave

As the Indian IT job market is booming, I can see more and more folks are relocating back to India from all of the developed countries. People who have lived for extensive periods of time abroad make this momentous decision to go back. As we bid farewell to one of our colleagues who was going back after 5 years in Germany, I started thinking about the nature of this decision

While living abroad, you tend to take for granted some conveniences and mode of operations. That train is expected to come in at 8.21 and it will. You go and dump the garbage in the right place (after separating out paper, bottles and other waste in 3 categories) [Sidenote: this is actually done in Germany. I cant think of any other group of people who will have the patience to do that]. You almost never honk your car horn. You give the pedestrians the right of way. You do not cross the road until the pedestrian light turns green. You almost never go to visit families without giving advance notice. The word 'please' is the one which is used the most.

I could go on.....

I wonder how much time it would take for people who go back to India to get used to the way of life there. I am sure the kids will be the first to adapt back to the Indian style of doing things. However, for the grown ups, it is probably a struggle at least for the initial months. People react in different ways to this. As I am seeing in the posts of at least one of the bloggers who seems to be struggling to come to terms with India while on his holiday from the US. (At least in this case, I sometimes feel, the guy either takes himself too seriously or he just doesnt get it)

So then why do people make the move back? I guess social networks would be the primary reason. I am sure that the situation of us vs them I mentioned in my previous post is true (albeit to a lesser extent) even in the US. You finally want to be be amongst your own class of people where you are most comfortable. There comes a stage in the family lifecycle when you need to provide the 'roots' to your kin. I guess that is the time when people really start contemplating a move back. Of course, with the number of opportunities that are now being seen in India, I guess the decision has become a little easier.