Schools in Bangalore

Schools in Marathahalli/ Whitefield (with my thoughts) - ONLY schools less with fees than 100 K per annum.

• Vinbgyor High - ICSE. 70 K per annum. Student numbers are growing very fast. Not sure whether quality can be sustained. Very new to Bangalore to comment. Has a history of activity based education with strong emphasis on extra curricular activities.
• Gopalan National - CBSE. 30 K per annum. Was very good originally. But, recent comments are not so encouraging
• Gopalan International - ICSE. 100 K per annum. Just started. Fees is very high and does not have any historical benefits to justify. All benefits explained are on paper.
• Deens Academy - CBSE. 45 K per annum - Looks good at the outside. New school. But, has lots of good review for education based focus.
• Ryan International - CBSE. 30 K per annum. Looks like turning out to be a mass factory. Heard that it has nearly 30 sections with each section having 50 students.
• Vagdevi vilas - CBSE. 30 K per annum. Huge campus. Did not visit to get details.

Return to India - 100 Days

100 Days review (Apr 1 to July 10)

Status / base of my comments:

• Home to office - 3 KM
• Home to kids school - 2 KM
• type of residence: luxury apartment complex of 1200 apartment
• location of residence: Bangalore suburbs
• Social life for Family - abundant
• Car - yes
• Maid - yes

All positives with NO regrets

• Job has been funtastic, more dynamic, more challenging and lot more satisfying.
• Lots of interaction with relatives. Atleast 80 of past 100 days should have had atleast one relative at home.
• Lots of new friends
• Satisfaction to read a local newspaper with all local content and spicy bits
• Lots of local topics can be discussed and debated
• Since apartment complex takes care of all "initial connections" and "bill payments", I am not forced to spend much time running for other issues.

Small negative thoughts:

• Roads are really bad with speed breakers that are really bone breakers
• Traffic jam makes you think twice
• Expenses - You will never imagine how expensive your monthly expenses can be. Even for the money spent, you are not sure whether is it really worth it.

Return to India

01.04.2009

Finally, took the plunge to return to India.

It was a long pending dilema where we were evaluating a 100 reasons to return to India and another 100 reasons to Not to return to India.

Few Positives (as I saw) in India:

• Closer to Indian culture and everything Indian
• Closer to relatives. Family bonding improves.
• Participate in all family events/ festivals
• Be closer and try to contribute back to Indian society

Few Negatives (as I saw) in India:

• Bangalore specific: roads are bad, traffic is pathetic, public transport is non-existent and neighbourhood community life does not exist. Your family cannot step out without you driving around.
• Outside life does not exist in India for family. Of course, this can be overcome by staying in a self sustained apartment complex
• Things do not happen as seamless as abroad. 100% of time is spent between office work and personal life. In India, we spend a lot of additional time to push things (EB, phone...)
• Schools - Mid term Admission is a pain. Fees is exorbitant and quality is not guaranteed. U need to start in the same place from LKG to get into good schools.

Factors that helped me overcome/Ignore the negatives:

• Bangalore specific - Stay close to office (whitefield in my case), have a car for family and drive them around even for nearby shops.
• Schools - Pay the exorbitant fees and be satisfied with what you get
• Stay in an apartment complex where there are people to take care of anything and everything for which you normally will be spending lots of time shuttling to government agencies. Your family also will have lots of people to interact with.