Stop sweating the details and look at the big picture while planning your return to India

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Mrs. Neo’s friend “Amit” in the Bay Area always tells the Neos to “stop sweating the details and look at the big picture”.

Amit’s “big picture” plan for returning to India starts with how the US-India nuclear deal and the crash of the US Dollar, coupled with the linking of the rivers project, and Shashi Tharoor’s inevitable rise to Prime Ministership of India in 2015 will cause the local economy along the Bangalore-Mysore highway to boom.

(Aside, if not Prime Minister, Mrs. Neo feels Mr. Tharoor has a good shot at Bollywood. “Just look at those dreamy eyes. And oooh the sideburns.”)

This boom will transform the area around Amit’s apartment into the next Dubai. Amit will sell the apartment at the peak and retire on the profits.(The peak has not yet occurred, though “Swaminathan’s welding shop and real estate agency” and “Jai Saraswati Mata bicycle tyre puncture repair” shops show much promise in jumpstarting the “Dubaisation”.)

In sharp contrast, while Amit spends all day coding reading weighty blogs and thinking about “The impact of the Lalgarh riots on the tax holiday for Indian IT companies”, Mrs. Neo wasted most of her first month in India literally “sweating” the small stuff, and canvassing door-to-door to find good references for maids.

Although, on the flip side, Mrs. Neo is now so well-known in the neighborhood, she would have a good chance of getting elected – if she wasn’t a US citizen.

But – Amit says by 2015 India will allow “dual citizens” to run for office, just in time for Mrs. Neo to join Prime Minister Tharoor’s cabinet!

(Neo is already looking for apartments in Vasant Vihar in South Delhi. The good ones go so fast!)

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Category: Dilemma, Housing, Investing, Renting, Return to India, bangalore | Tags: Bollywood, Dubai, India, Prime minister, Real estate broker, San Francisco Bay Area, Shashi Tharoor, Society and Culture 13 comments »

13 Responses to “Stop sweating the details and look at the big picture while planning your return to India”

Shefaly
June 24th, 2009 at 6:04 am
If Mrs Neo joins the cabinet, she will have posh office accommodation in a Lutyens Delhi location, her own security, official armoured car with sirens etc. So don’t sweat the small stuff such as Vasant Vihar apartments. Instead think of the big picture such as what will YOU do as the spouse with lots of time on your hands. By then, Junior will also be around 10 and you can safely send him to Doon or Scindia.

[Reply]
Shefaly
June 24th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Neo:

FWIW I do not think of Mr Tharoor as good-looking. I find coloured eyes on olive skins in men singularly creepy. And the sideburns suggest he has a 1970s Rajesh Khanna hangover. That is, like, so last century.

[Reply]
neo
June 25th, 2009 at 12:26 am
@Shefaly

What about Tharoor’s retro Brit accent ? What does that do for you ?

[Reply]
Shefaly
June 25th, 2009 at 3:03 am
What is retro-British? And anyway there is no such thing as a British accent. I think you know my views on acquired accents…

neo
June 25th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
@Shefaly

Ok fair enough. But then what do the speaking styles of Nehru, Tharoor have in common ? That’s what I meant by retro-British accent.
Dinesh
June 24th, 2009 at 6:07 am
I see what is the next boom industry in India. A Maid consultancy service, to provide well trained, sophisticated yet caring and sincere maids for the returning NRIs to India. May be we can form a portfolio in the cabinet – The Maids minister and appoint Mrs. Neo for that post. How is that!

[Reply]
Roshni
June 24th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Its true. Amit looks a lot like Farookh Sheikh…and look at what a big star HE was!!

[Reply]
Ritesh
June 24th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
To Roshni ( above me) – you mean to say Shashi Tharoor looks like Farookh Shekh !! LMAO !!

Another good post neo !..I almost chocked on this statement “Just look at those dreamy eyes. And oooh the sideburns.”

[Reply]
Roshni
June 24th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
come on! If you hit him on the head with a brick, the similarity with Sheikh is mind-boggling!! You obviously are not as big a fan of Farookh as I am!!!!

[Reply]
Shefaly
June 25th, 2009 at 3:05 am
You also have to pluck much of his hair out to match for Farooq Sheikh never had too much hair.

The thought of him singing “Ooooooo Noorie” still traumatises me* and in my weirdest dreams, Farooq Sheikh merges into the scene from Moonstruck, where Cher’s granddad takes the dogs out for a walk and does “Ooooooo” at the moon…

*Despite the eye-watering first shot of the then-stunning Ms Poonam Dhillon which made for a collective sharp intake of breath in the cinema hall.

[Reply]
Ritesh
June 25th, 2009 at 4:12 am
Roshni

I agree he does look little bit like Farookh Shekh, but I don’t think you got what I was saying. The guy in the photo above is Shashi Tharoor, not neo’s friend Amit !! :p

Ritesh

[Reply]
Roshni
June 25th, 2009 at 11:42 am
yeah yeah!! Details, details!!

neo
June 25th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
@Ritesh

Yes I was wondering how Roshni thinks Amit looks like Farookh Sheikh. Amit looks like Ben Bernanke, except with less hair. And he laughs like Jim Carrey.

-Neo