NRI to R2I

Time is running soo fast- It’s been a year today since we shifted back to India. I can call myself a happy R2I(!?)
It would not be fair if I say my transition phase of R2I was very good! I did have my own round of cribbing after moving back. I still find that I do make references of people, place and atmosphere which I liked about sophisticated Singapore to my known circle here!! I feel I make references, hoping some day our India will also learn and adopt the good things from other foreign countries.
I will want to recollect about some of my memories as NRI during my stint of close to 3 years in Singapore.
The first thing I remember about Singapore is the building we lived-Grandeur8 condo. It was a well maintained complex and we got a beautiful pool facing ground floor flat with a BIG patio!! I used to love staring the well maintained pool with a hot cup of tea early in the morning. I feel Grandeur8 really helped us to unwind and relax amidst the hectic lifestyle we had. We learnt swimming and tennis there as well. I wish I could start getting back to the routine of swimming. I have been a little lazy and not gone to explore one around my neighbourhood in Chennai. That’s been a looong pending item from my end.
Next thing which I remember is the bus service. Myself and S would love to go on a long travel by local bus. I would get undivided attention from my better half [without any other gadget distractions]. Half of our important conversations would happen in the bus.
I also agree with most R2I people’s opinion that we tend to watch more of our own mother tongue movies abroad than we do in India. It was quite easy to get tickets and we did watch of lot of tamil /hindi movies. Within walking distance from our apartment, we had a theatre which filmed English movies. So, we ended up watching more English movies as well.
I guess food and me go together. I love food and that too authentic Indian food are my all time favorite! We had lots of small joints in and around Little India like Gangothree, Murugan Idli Kadai etc, which we used to frequently visit. I have to say about the Yishun Mariyamman koil and a small food joint behind the temple premises! Food is dead cheap there and I like to sit down on the floor and eat there. Sometimes, I have my own doubts if I go there for temple or for food! The place my office was located had no good Indian food options. Back those days I was a lazy bun to get up and cook early in the mornings! I developed good rapport in office with many Indian colleagues because of Annalakshmi. Many Indian colleagues of different department knew me for the simple reason that I helped to order Indian food from Annalakshmi for many in my office! ;)
I learnt to appreciate the importance of domestic helpers, which we very much take for granted in India. In India, we have the luxury of having helpers clean our entire house, wash utensils for all 7 days of the week and still pay them a very meagre amount(still crib if she doesn’t turn up even for one day!!)

Developed a few close friends as well and learnt a lot culturally from my colleagues.

Given a chance will we want to go out of India again? I would say time alone will answer this question - As one part of the heart wants to remain in Chennai as I am slowly settling down here, while the other part of the heart wants to explore or test new waters!