My Travel To India

As many of you may already be aware, we had been to India to explore our new home built in ECR Road closer to Bay of Bengal. The house was architected and constructed based on my wife's specifications in a traditional way and completed in 2023. We were unable to visit to India until the end of 2025. We took two months break to enjoy the new home. Our intention is to explore the living in India and find out whether we will be able to migrate back to India. Overall the experience was good except a few hiccups like frequent low voltage problem. But it is understandable as our home is in outskirts of Chennai city and might be difficult for TNEB to provide consistent power supply in areas where there are not much industries located. In other words, these areas may not be a priority for them despite many VIPs living in that area including BJP stalwart K. Annamalai. I was planning an inverter but everyone shot that idea as it is wasteful investment for now at least until I migrate permanently. The solar panel at the roof top might not be a good idea as well until we make the permanent move. If everything goes well, we may plan that migration in the next 24 months and do it step by step over a period of time. We can only plan and only God would know how this plan would work out over a period of time.

I was the one who started this discussion 5 years ago with stiff resistance from the family. But I kept the discussion alive for this long and I felt the motivation will be high if we build a comfortable home in India. My thought process was to avoid being in the US during our old age as healthcare is always a problem not due to quality of the hospital but because of complicated healthcare system in place. I am already in Medicare and my wife is joining me in Medicare this year as she just turning 65 this May 2026. It is true individual healthcare premium costs will be avoided once she joins Medicare. Despite steep rise of cost of living in India, it is much lower in India when compared to the state in which I live presently. Moreover, our journey to India to visit our mother country is not easier anymore with my mother in law at the age of 85, my wife at the age of 65 and me at the age of 72 despite setting up wheelchair for easy mobility in boarding, transit and destination airports. While traveling in the plane, I read about Singapore Airport automation using AI and Machine learning. By entering the Terminal and Gate #, one will be able to navigage himself/herself to the new gate in transit. The luggage locations are always available for the passenger including knowing that their luggages were already loaded into the plane or not. Luggages are transported to the terminal through auto trucks. What we had experienced in most airports is either they have a shortfall of wheelchairs or the staff who would take responsibility to take a passanger from point A to point B. Hopefully, this automation catches up soon in multiple airports making it easier for the passengers.

During this stay, I focused more on setting up the house rather than visiting friends and family as this is the only way we can fix our requirements in an orderly fashion. We also avoided a lot of trip except one religious visit to the Temples. The house looks lot better now when compared to how it was when we started this trip. Both my wife and mother-in-law enjoyed their stay in our new home. It was a relaxing month and a half, with someone preparing food for us, someone maintaining the house clean and us relaxing including taking a stroll up to the beach in the form of morning walk. The beach was just 500 meters away from our home.

I just need to find something to engage my mind as I will be lost with nothing to do after retirement. Anyone who has done it successfully, please share some wisdom for me to learn.

 

It is so pleasing to know that your mom (former Professor) ended up teaching herself about stock markets and trying new recipes after hours in order to engage herself post retirement. It is exciting to know that despite iniitial losses, she never gave up and became a stalwart. I remember those who trade, the timing of the trading time is like Business Hours and we should never disturb them. This will be one activity that might excite me as I naturally like analyzing the fundamentals of the companies. Another one I am thinking of is to engage with young entrepreneurs and corporate executives to teach the art of Mergers & Acquisitions which is my specialty for now.

I also like to engage in many service activities post retirement.

 

I am back in the US and now but I truly enjoyed village-like atmosphere that existed in the outskirts of Chennai with listening to bird's chirping, Peacocks walking into our door looking for food, my morning walk up to the Beach which is just 500 meters away from home, listening to the sound of the waves and watching the sunrise, etc. I am active in Sathya Sai Baba bhajan groups, service activities, etc. for the past 30 years in the US ever since I migrated to the US. Besides, I am part of the National Curriculum Team in the US to teach Sri Sathya Sai Educare children up to the age of 17 preparing lesson plans and developing curriculum. I hope to find similar possible actions when I migrate back to India. I like volunteering in the orphanage or old age homes as well. I definitely like Narayana Seva and we did something similar by preparing pockets of food and distributed them in nearby areas during our stay in India.

 

Dear Cheeniya Sir,

I need to learn that art when I am left alone as I get agitated. You are right that the world is going to move without me definitely. I am so looking forward to moving to India but as we both know, man proposes but it is God who disposes what happens eventually.

 

Thank you for your response. I have been contemplating this move for the past 5 years and I realized one way to do it is to build a home that the family will fall in love. They did like the new home and hopefully, I can gradually move over a few years after winding up in the US.