I returned to Hyderabad in May 2026 to attend my father’s first year death anniversary, here a look at things that changed and unchanged back home in India.
Onward Journey
The onward Journey in Lufthansa was my first journey via Europe. To start on positive note European airlines compared to mid-east airlines as they are more efficient in time management and run pretty much on schedule. The Airbus for first leg and Boeing for second leg were not large planes, though well-kept and food was decent. Food got better in second half of journey from Europe to India, compared to US to Europe stretch. Even though all directions are well laid out, airport can do better by adding more amenities in transit area especially in times of war they could have cashed in people hesitant to travel through middle east route.
Day 1
Now let me share my experience of my stay at ever expanding metropolis of Hyderabad. Airport experience has become seamless with ability to complete my family fast track enrollment within minutes, just FYI we filled up forms before arrival. Hyderabad airport has become pretty much on par with most international destinations like Dubai and other modern airports, better than most American airports. Though once you’re out of airport it’s the familiar chaos of too many people offering services, which could be still better streamlined. As an Indian I don’t find it good enough, though from a foreigner perspective it might seem still a bit Chaotic once they are outside.
Growth story of Hyderabad: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/property-/-cstruction/hyderabad-emerges-as-the-biggest-market-of-south-indias-ultra-luxury-residential-market/articleshow/130824002.cms?from=mdr
The journey back home highlights upgrade for sure as Hyderabad Road Infrastructure keeps improving every year, according to my opinion it has almost become a self-sufficient city, like other global capitals. Though there is a contrast between where IT companies / airports exist and other sides of town like Secunderabad, still not much changed on the other side apart from new eateries and commercial spaces all over. Below are couple of photos below to share contrast.
I wrote few years back highlighting India’ transition to ecommerce which is quite amazing almost best in the world, where you hardly need cash anymore, you can use a smartphone to pay everything from as small as tea to as large as household items. Initial effort is needed for setup, and its easy if you have Indian SIM Card, it’s now enabled for international numbers also, though you might still face some hurdles.
India’s ecommerce a big win: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/logistics/our-insights/the-great-unbundling-of-indian-e-commerce-msmes-and-the-direct-to-consumer-revolution
Day 2
The day was mostly dedicated to shopping for upcoming family events. The heat in Hyderabad was extreme with temperature reaching Mid 40’s Celsius. With this trend I won’t be surprised if most of India turns into Dessert within next 20-25 yrs. Shopping is expensive, just buying few clothes can cost a fortune. The food available in street side eateries have become costly due to Gas shortage, as there is ongoing war in the Middle East. The Variety of food available is amazing, you don’t get to experience yet in western world. Many options also are sprouting up now in US like food trucks though you can’t beat India in terms of taste and affordability.
Day 3 – 7
Prelude to family events, it included more shopping and required arrangements.
The Death anniversary itself for telugu brahmin families belonging to sub clan Rig Vedic includes a very extensive processes, where the event is split between three days as below.
Una Abtikam (First day), Samvatsaravimoka (Second day), and Pratama Abtikam (Third day). It’s a series of offerings made to the departed ancestors providing them strength to ascend to higher spiritual planes, ultimately attain Brahma Loka. See the explanation in this blog: https://kbnsarma.wordpress.com/tag/pitru-kaarya/
The event included interaction with extended family members, typical to any large family. There will be different kinds of characters and emotions at play during a large gathering. The second day also included offering food to all relatives and friends, with many people showing up. For immediate family, this kind of event could be quite draining as it includes less sleep, lot of prep work, extensive processes and lot of coordination.
Hope all these efforts give my father a smoother transition to heaven. I hope I have played my part as son with utmost sincerity.
Day 8-9
The events ended with purification ritual for the entire last year which marks the completion of yearlong penance and the family can get back to conducting their day-to-day rituals, visiting temples and celebrating festivals. On this specific day we did couple of rituals mentioned below.
Mahanyasa Eka Rudra Rudrabhishekam, importance explained in the below blog: https://mahanyasam.com/why-mahanyasam-is-important/
Satyanarayana Swamy Vratham, importance explained in the below blog: https://www.mpanchang.com/articles/astrology/satyanarayan-vrat-katha/
Day 10 & 11
We did a quick family trip To Vijayawada and Machilipatnam, going back to the roots from where my family originates.
Vijayawada History: https://www.amaravativoice.com/Info/history-of-vijayawada-explore-the-city-of-victory
Our family worships as home goddess (Kula Devata) Mata Kanaka Durga, we visited her abode in Vijayawada. This temple is mentioned in Indian mythology and is considered as an immensely powerful goddess.
From defeating demons, to diverting the mighty Krishna River path, Arjuna’s Penance and Sri Adi Shankaracharya installed Sri Chakra during his visit, the temple is mesmerizing as a Hindu Devotee.
Read about the history & Mythology in the below article: https://kanakadurgamma.org/en-in/about/the-temple-history/the-history
We rested the night at my Aunt’s place in Machlipatnam . This town which is one of the oldest ports in the country , though later not maintained due to location challenges and other superior ports on the east coast of India. Now there is a new port being created with scientific methods to revitalize the port.
As per some scholars, the city came into existence in first century AD when it was famous for Muslin, a thin-plain weave cotton cloth. Perhaps, there was the reason why it was referred to as Masalia or Masulipatnam.
Machlipatnam History : https://www.machilipatnamonline.in/guide/history-of-machilipatnam
Another important fact about the place is the sea level is higher than the actual town, so the town requires innovative solutions to manage the local drainage , with some plans under the way.
We also visited another powerful Temple Mopidevi in our return journey.
Temple is meant for worshiping the snake god Subramanyam Swamy. It is known for helping couples who could not concieve kids, also people having other physical ailments , in general any snake temple in India is worshipped with atmost reverence.
You can read orgins of the temple here : https://mopidevitemple.org/aboutus.html
Importance of snake as per Hindu Mythology : https://www.karigarofficial.com/blogs/blog/symbolism-and-importance-of-snakes-in-hinduism-ayurveda-and-mythology
https://isha.sadhguru.org/en/wisdom/article/naga-panchami-festival-snake-worship
On the way we stopped at 3 places for breakfast, lunch and evening Tea. There are eateries ranging from poor maintaience to excellent service and ambience. Best way to judge if your not local is to see place where most cars have parked, also if you now live abroad or in affluent part of Hyderabad having clean restrooms / washrooms with western toilets is a must. The food itself is pretty delicious everywhere though not cheap.
Day 12 & 13
As we wind our trip down, last two days were dedicated to mostly shopping, packing and final greetings. There is variety of shopping available, you need to shell out lot of money.
Return Journey
The return journey was via Mumbai. Mumbai airport is impressive with lot of good shopping and food courts. Since we enrolled in fast track, immigration was also pretty quick. Air India experience was pretty good, i believe they are unfairly criticized for bad service. The transit in Frankfurt was smooth, its a pretty large airport and directions are well laid out. Though lot of walking might be involved based on your departure gate. On Arrival in Raleigh CBP line was pretty long due to multiple flights arriving on same time though interview was pretty quick, just required documents verified. Overall I really like Luftansa as an alternative to Midlle east airlines, though make sure you have Visa / citizenship for both source and destination.
Lifestyle Comparison
Disclaimer: Below is estimated average values as per Hyderabad Metropolitan Area in Mid 2026 & living cost and a mid-sized City in USA, does not reflect any specific person / family or I take any liability for any specific decision making by anyone, just for illustration.
| Expense type (average monthly estimate) | Average India (INR / USD) | Average EstimateUS (USD) |
| Salary | 2 Lakh | 10000 |
| Rent | 30000 / 320 | 1500 |
| EMI | 1 Lakh / 1100 | 3000 |
| House Cost | 2 CR / 211800 | 450k / 4.2 CR INR |
| Car EMI | 30000 / 320 | 500 |
| Insurance per yr | 1 Lakh / 1100 | 6000 ( This is already deducted in salary) |
| Utilities | 6000 / 65 | 500 |
| Groceries | 15000 / 160 | 500 |
| Petrol / Gasoline | 10000 / 100 | 200 |
| Shopping | 10000 / 100 | 100 |
| School Fees per child / yr. | 2 lakh / 2200 | 0 |
| College Fees per yr | 10 -25 lakh / 10k-25k | 20k – 100k based on type of college |
| Monthly Expenses if renting | 3 Lakhs plus yearly extra commitments of 5 Lakhs. / 30000 USD | 4000 USD plus yearly commitments of 10000 USD |
| Monthly expenses if owning house with EMI | 4 Lakhs plus yearly extra commitments of 10 Lakhs. / 50000 USD | 5000 – 10000 USD plus yearly commitments of 20000 USD |
Expert review on lifestyle comparison: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/india-is-cheaper-but-u-s-income-is-13x-higher-ca-breaks-down-the-lifestyle-difference-between-india-and-america/articleshow/128777440.cms?from=mdr
Challenges & Plus Points in Both Countries
India
Positives:
- India is a highly social and friendly place, you can get help from different alternative methods, compared to US where your mostly do on your own.
- Ecommerce in India is just superb, lot to be wished in US.
- Food, shopping, cultural experience just blows your mind away in India.
- Educational standards for Indians are remarkable due to high emphasis on education from childhood.
- EV adoption has started, surprisingly US is way behind (apart from Tesla in West Coast). You can find BYD everywhere and lot of Indian manufacturers as alternatives.
- India is very much ahead in AI Race; they are ahead of most western countries in terms of actual implementations.
- Temples are living Instruments created for overall wellbeing of the society, hope youth realizes and uses for their growth.
- Sense of community, you can talk to a neighbor, a stranger on road or a peer at any place freely.
Negatives:
- Too much chaos due to high population, though India has thrived being in an unstructured way.
- Lack of sanitation, cleanliness especially when you travel outside a large city, still a long way for the country to meet any developed country’s standards in terms of cleanliness.
- Selfishness and Greediness, for example in driving, that also could be a result of high population and needing to survive and wanting to win the race! Driving in affluent corridors has improved due to more lanes and better vehicle choices, in other parts of city it’s still nightmare to drive.
- India is extremely hot already in early May, obvious signs of country could be a dessert kind of environment in a quarter of a century, hope high educational standard can find innovative solutions.
- India imports maximum of its energy demands, again innovative solutions needed, if that was not the case then due to AI Boom India would have already leapfrogged developed nations in a decade.
- Corruption still exists at all levels, even though there are a lot of improvements in governance.
- In India there is still huge gap between infrastructure in City vs Tier B cities, I believe we need to drive youth back to their roots otherwise this will never lead towards overall development.
United States
Positives:
- In US amazing environment, there is hardly any pollution.
- Open roads and beautiful natural wonders.
- Disciplined Lane-based driving makes long distances a pleasure, this is also helped by less population.
- Almost anywhere in US has similar lifestyle and people having any job can do reasonably well, not just tech.
- Less corruption in US at common people level, lobbying exists at federal government level.
- Educational expenses at school level are almost zero in US.
- Mature stock market, you can buy stock of any country / region in US stock exchange. Indian stock market as a comparison does not have mature ETF market yet.
- Still lot of Big Trillion-dollar companies, thus can pump capital anywhere and thus still little ahead in global superpower race. For comparison Europe just has Billion dollar few companies, no trillion-dollar company.
- Capitalistic mindset helps them rebuild their life on their own instead of depending on government subsidies.
- Still top-notch universities are driving lot of patents and innovations, though other countries are catching up fast.
- Preserving their Natural resources like lakes and forests does make US a wonderful place to stay for quite some time, all other countries will be depleted of resources before them.
- Work life balance is a plus, you can start working as early as 6 AM and wind up 3 PM, though slowly this culture is fading away at least in tech sector.
Negatives:
- In US with all its capital and industries can do much better in having friendly relations and continue to dominate global power, though looks it has lost goodwill of many countries.
- Lack of sense of community as neighbors hardly talk to each other unless you take the initiative. It has become a tougher place recently for new immigrants.
- Extreme climate could create Havoc in USA, still lot to be wished in making country ready for such scenarios.
- Even though it still produces latest tech innovations, due to policies it’s not far that it would start sliding in the innovation index soon.
- Still Airports and Public transport require significant improvements in US.
- US Universities will be the first ones to see decline in standards over next decade as students have started looking at other countries as alternatives.
- Elderly care is not great; it still favors who have saved lot of money and older people still working in stores is not pretty sight.
- Can be tough place economically in first couple of years as credit rating builds over period so if you’re not born here, assimilation to economic realities might be tough.
- Labor still is expensive even for basic things, which is the biggest hurdle for manufacturing to come back to US.
Comparison for an NRI: https://www.globemoving.net/international/moving-to-india/usa-vs-india-nri-comparison/
Leadership Development
It’s essential to understand the pain point of people in every community and start building community leadership. Youth in smaller towns have lot of skills though due to lack of guidance they are unable to contribute to nation building. If we can show them an reason to contribute, I am sure the country can do wonders.
Government Initiatives
Even though we start building small industries, government must still play their part. We do not need to become like Capitalistic US or Communist China though government should give more backing to industries which can help them do R&D and it should be ok to fail.
Summary
This article gives you an illustration on changing times in both India and US; hope help you get clarity on lot of positives / challenges in either place. I would say wherever you stay don’t take emotional decisions, keep all the factors discussed in mind while making the experience of life a smooth journey for your family and be an active contributor to Nation Building!
Loka Bloom 
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