OPINION | 'Making My Janmabhoomi My Karmabhoomi': Why this techie came home to Hyderabad from US

India

Rising nativism in the West has taken the sheen off building a life there. An Indian techie who decided to come back writes that there’s never been a better time to get the best of both worlds: the joy of being home while being plugged into the world of cutting-edge technology.

India’s understated stability

I was born and raised in Hyderabad until I was 21. I graduated from IIT Hyderabad in 2013 and then attended Stanford University for my Master’s in EE with a focus on Machine Learning. At Stanford, I had a great time learning from the best in the business, such as Andrew Ng, Andrej Karpathy, and Jeff Dean. I met people from different backgrounds and countries, including war-torn ones. Hearing their stories made me appreciate the understated stability of growing up in India.

Upon graduation, I had a couple of startup stints. Thereafter, I worked at Meta for seven years in their monetisation core ML team. I co-led engineering on a company-wide effort that was featured in The Wall Street Journal, a US DoJ press release, The Verge, Meta AI Blog, besides technical publications. I made many friends along the way and enjoyed several things that America (and the Bay Area) had to offer: great hiking trails, beaches, lively downtowns, driving distance to snow-capped mountains.

Upon graduation, I had a couple of startup stints. Thereafter, I worked at Meta for seven years in their monetisation core ML team. I co-led engineering on a company-wide effort that was featured in The Wall Street Journal, a US DoJ press release, The Verge, Meta AI Blog, besides technical publications. I made many friends along the way and enjoyed several things that America (and the Bay Area) had to offer: great hiking trails, beaches, lively downtowns, and driving distance to snow-capped mountains.

The decision to return

My wife and I started thinking about moving back to India in 2022-23 after weighing the following factors:

* Access to healthcare in the US (or lack thereof): I once spent an entire long weekend in writhing pain from a toothache because “urgent care” centres don’t have dentists. Among friends and family, I saw other examples of delayed access to specialist care for more serious needs.

* Far better tech career options than before: After my undergrad, there weren’t many product SWE (Software Engineer) roles in India. By about 2018, while the number of interesting SWE roles had gone up, there weren’t many ML/AI roles. Over the last few years, that has decisively changed. Most of the "Mag 7" now have AI teams in India, in addition to homegrown incumbents and startups.

* Clarion calls from PM Modi: The Prime Minister’s impetus on Atma Nirbharta in 2021 and his message to participate in ushering in “Amrit Kaal” in 2023 resonated with us.

* Anti-immigrant sentiment: Two anti-immigrant heckling experiences, once at a mall in San Jose and another right in our neighbourhood.

* Proximity to ageing parents

After weighing these, my wife and I decided to move back to India last year and make our janmabhoomi also our karmabhoomi.

Post-move experience

Of course, the transition wasn't without its challenges. Taking Pacific Time meetings twice or thrice a week can be exhausting, and we miss the easy access to nature and hiking.

While I adapted to Indian driving conditions sooner than I expected, the civic infrastructure in Hyderabad and Bengaluru could certainly do with improvement. There was also the initial hurdle of figuring out pre-move and post-move logistics, though I'll note that with today's AI chatbots, accessing information on this front has become much easier.

Fortunately for us, the personal transition was relatively seamless. My wife also works in tech, and with both of our families being from Hyderabad, we had a social support system from day one. We had a lot of fun during festivals like Ugadi, Diwali, and Ganesh Chaturthi; it was the first time in 11 years that we celebrated them in India as we’d generally visit home in December. Indian communities abroad have been organising celebrations too, but nothing comes close to the celebrations back home. A cherry on top has been cricket scheduling being optimised for prime-time IST viewing.

Advice for tech NRIs

Within a few months of our return, I saw other techies in our extended circle make the same move from the US back to India, a sign that our personal calculation was part of a larger trend. For those considering a similar move, especially if you aren't originally from tech hubs like Bengaluru or Hyderabad, there are a few practical challenges to anticipate.

The first is the lack of a social support system, unless you already have friends or relatives in these cities. Furthermore, kids beyond a certain age will take time to adjust to the change in environment and culture.

How to minimise transition pain

My suggestion is to pick a community with onsite amenities and sports facilities. That will make it much easier to make new friends and get a workout done. Your kids will also find it more seamless to be around the company of other kids in the same boat.

On the “Hyderabad or Bengaluru” question, both have their pros and cons. Hyderabad offers better commute efficiency—connectivity from the Outer Ring Road puts many West Hyderabad communities within easy reach. Bengaluru has more depth in its startup ecosystem. Other tech hubs are also emerging in the rest of the country.

On finding the right jobs, I suggest making a trip to India with a week’s time dedicated to meeting techies in your preferred companies. You can cold message them on LinkedIn describing your intent, or reach out through common friends.

Looking to the future

Over the course of my interactions with recent grads and students here, I saw many diamonds in the rough who will greatly benefit from experienced members of the NRI community. You can come back and impart your learnings to shape these youngsters into the technology leaders of tomorrow. After a few post-move years of growing your local network and learning about problems to solve for India, you might even feel the itch to start-up with the visa monkey off your back.

A rare moment in history

Returning has reminded me why the call to contribute during Amrit Kaal resonated so strongly: there is a rare alignment between India’s talent, ambition, and the global market today. For those on the fence, there’s no single right answer—but the opportunity to build world-class technology while being close to your roots is a compelling choice that merits serious consideration, more so with rising nativism.

(Aditya Timmaraju is Senior Staff Research Engineer at Google DeepMind.)

Views are personal and not those of the author’s employer, nor do they represent the stand of this publication.