It’s been way more than a decade since I have returned to India, beating X+1 syndrome.    US Journalist Jeremy Smerd interviewed me sometime in 2007 on my R2I (Return2India) experience as part of his study for workforce magazine, which can be browsed at http://www.workforce.com/articles/fast-track-greets-indian-returnees.

What is X+1 Syndrome (mentioned in above interview) ?  If you have had moved to US (for whatever reason) with hope/plan/dream of returning to India one day, you are likely to know what I meant by X+1 syndrome.  Thanks to Radhika, I got out the of the infamous X+1 syndrome little earlier than several others out there

I had told Jeremy Smerd that I would be building a villa closer to HiTech city, when he spoke to me in 2007.  At that time, I was living in an independent apartment home just few yards from my siblings and parents. After I moved to Hyderabad, for the first few years, I lived along with my Parents, and  3 brothers. So,there were 10 siblings for Revanth in the house.  At one time, youngest in the junior chintala clan was 16 months and oldest in our joint family was 16 years old (Divya, whose wedding was once featured in my blog), with a mix of 5 girls and 6 boys   You can see almost all the siblings in this video taken during our mini rendezvous on Jan 1st this year.

So, we all lived in a palatial home with a family of two dozen members.  Very often one could see situations very similar to the one you see in Bollywood movies such as  Hum Aapke Hai Kaun, or recent Tollywood movies too (where house is always filled with dozens of folks in celebration mode) :-).   Our kitchen was ON from 6AM to Midnight, entire house was always buzzing with dozen kids, 4 brothers, their spouses, Dad, Mom, and Granny, maids, drivers, planned and unplanned guests.  It is no brainer that Men had the best time as it appeared like there is always some feast going on, though it took a bit of toll on women doing so much work around on the house as there was always one of 25 who would need to be attended for breakfast or lunch or dinner or a snack. However there was informal project management type of protocol (put in place by my Dad) in the house, to distribute onus and responsibility of  maintenance of kitchen and house to each member on a round robin basis, and keep sanity in the house

As years passed by and kids grown up, it wasn’t too practical to have so many folks living in one house.  So I moved into custom luxury apartment home built by my dad, which charmed every person who visited me over last 8 years.   It was so beautiful I deferred my desire to move to villa type of setup. Apartment still looks contemporary and sparklingly new.  Radhika conducted so many meditations and discourses in this place, every inch of this home oozes with positive vibration, as you can see/feel from the below snaps.

However, I still had an itch somewhere in my heart that I should be living in a full-scale villa before kids leave for the college.  Radhika wasn’t too fascinated about living in a  big house, and was extra content with apartment, which was so easy for her to maintain.   And I was also not too excited to move to west side of Hyderabad, leaving the proximity of my parents & siblings.  I always dreaded moving to west of Hyderabad as far as moving to western hemisphere.

But over the last 8 years, as the Hyderabad roads have become extra congested (due to exponential increase in all types of vehicles, and recent Metro rail construction), amount of time that was taking for me to commute to/from work dramatically increased turning my commute time up to 2 hours. Though I have been doing parallel tasking (catching up with friends and family on the phone, watching movies, surfing net) during my commute, long distance driving (though mostly chauffeur driven) was keeping me away from my family.

So, when Revanth got admitted into JNTU last month, I thought it is about time I move to North side of Hyderabad.  I heard about INDU FORTUNE FIELDS from a colleague, and learned about couple of villas being available for rent. I drove to Indu Fortune Fields 3 weeks ago, along with Revanth, and took a look at the villa that I just moved in.  As soon as I entered the villa, I knew that this is place I would want to my family to live next 4 years.  I called Radhika and said, I love this place. She said GO FOR IT.  Within next 24 hours we gave verbal, and agreed to lease the place.  We moved to the new place within next 3 weeks.

Given that I will not have enough time, patience, and free dough to build one, I thought leasing one is as good as I realizing the dream of living in a large-scale villa. Now I LIVE about 10 minutes away work place, thus cutting down my commute significantly.  I am actually able to come home for Lunch when desired, and spend more time with kids and see my family before stars begin to sparkle in the sky.  Here is the link to the video shot on S4 Galaxy, stitched in 4X speed (to compress time). I shot this video few days ago, while Revanth drove to my work place, and again while returning to home.  Rain, Bumpy Roads, Wiper, Foggy weather may diminish your viewing experience, but worth a shot.  I am sure to   record this again on a sunny day

It is a big change for my family, and me after getting used to luxury of bonding with extended family for last one decade.   However, I was convinced it is now equally important for Revanth to be close to the college, and he may not be thrilled with long commute.  Revanth and kids have already developed strong bonding with grand parents, and siblings thanks to proximity over the last decade.  Now they have already started planning different avenues to do sleep overs to keep the bonding intact. It’s been 2 weeks since we have moved, all the junior boys in the clan had PS3 gaming event yesterday night along with tastiest pizza (from “over the flames“) in town.

I am sure we are going to have some fun here, hosting and entertaining friends and families, while having more quality family time here @ Indu Fortune Fields.  I feel like I am actually living in a resort or on a long vacation when I am at home. I can finally here sound of critters in the late evening, join international calls (without background sound track of blazing honking sound from street traffic), and as a family we can jog, bike, play, swim, squash, learning music, all within the community

Check out below snaps from the recent events

Kids travelled on MMTS from East Side of Hyderabad to West Side, and has gone green. Ticket price is Rs. 5, and travel time is 30 minutes.

 

Snaps from my old home, which is now available for rent.

The process of moving:

New Home

Aniketh already in action @ new place