The other side is...

Was talking to R yesterday, who is on a business trip to India/Bangalore. Being a native, he is having a good time. He good god graciously should, having gone such unexplainable events in the recent times.

The chat turned towards jobs in India and I got a good field report, live from Bangalore!. He was pretty upbeat about the job situation in India. Multi-nationals( is that term relevant anymore ?! ) are hiring at alarming pace. Jobs are everywhere I heard, waiting to be taken!!!. Attrition rates are high, but for a different reason, as compared to 1999, the last I rememember about the Indian job scene.

In 1999, the attrition was mainly due to IT professionals moving to US, but now its between companies based on compensation, but with in India. Still jobs are plenty. Very interesting scenario.

While it rekindled my thoughts about moving to India, my memory of the Indian job market, as old as 1999, still pulls me back. It was one bad experience, to say the least. Then, atleast in the company/group I worked for, they were clueless about 'corporate culture', 'time-sense' and 'career growth'. There was no difference between days and nights and on top of it, there was no value for the person, behind the term 'employee'. It literally pushed not only me, but many of us to force ourselves to eject out of the scene.

Roll forward to 7 years and here I'm thinking back about Indian job scene.

R did mention about the poor corporate culture, that's still prevalent and how in spite of it, jobs are available everywhere. But he mentioned that things have changed, so while I could still have problems adjusting to the new culture, it may 'may' be different and better than 1999.

But, it was gratifying to know that my country is forging ahead by leaps and bounds and it reflected the upbeat trip of President Bush, just yesterday.

On the flip side, I began to think as how much have things changed in my life as compared to 1999. The feeling of having lost a lot, overcame what I've gained over years and infact questioned whether the gain was real and was it 'gain' at all ?!

While I've thought about moving back many times before, this time it was, for some reason very different. One reason may be the near and dears ones are over there and that I wish more than ever to be nearer to them.

I'm still thinking, with my mind swaying... Hmm, interesting times.