Hyderabad Salary Survey : Informal survey of friends, recruiters and others in my professional network

First let me take this opportunity to Wish you all a Happy and Prosperous new year 2007. Hyderabad was a happening place for the last few days with a number of parties all around the city.

After receiving a ton of emails about salaries in Hyderabad, I decided to do a survey of my contacts in local companies, recruiters and others who have been involved in the placement industry. What I present here is very unscientific and should not be considered an official survey. Also, please note that Indian Salary are based on the concept of CTC ( Cost to Company ) and that makes it very hard to compare offers of two companies. There are companies that include every component including their contribution to PF, and other companies that try to be fair by including only the real components that are being given to you.

The remaining article has moved to our new blog at hyderabad.mylifemysite.com

R2I Financial Data Consolidation : A Tip

The # of login/passwords that we remember in current day is mind boggling. 2 to 3 years ago I ran into this service called yodlee and I have become a fan since and have used it extensively during my stint in the US. For those of you who do not know what its all about, Yodlee allows you to link all your bank account balances, assets, investments, reward programs into one single account where I can monitor all transactions and movements.

Recently I was almost giving up on this service since my accounts are now moving to Indian Banks and Brokerages. I tried a search for ICICI and was surprised to see the support for Indian banks too. So, if you are in US and have Indian accounts or vice-versa, you should be able to link all of them together into a dashboard.

You can sign up for this in 2 ways, you can sign up on yodlee directly [ I recommend this method ] by clicking Here. Select Log into US$ account and then select register. Alternate option is to pick from one of your banks that already uses the platform [ listed here ].

They employ a # of software engineers in bangalore, so another reason to support their services I guess ;-)

90 days and Loving it. Hyderabad Rocks

One more month has passed since my 60 day update.. . Things are still looking excellent and the recent festivals added to the +ve thoughts about our move so far. With diwali and dusshera occuring very close to each other, we had ample opportunities to visit family, relax and enjoy the good times in Hyderabad.

Finally my son is in ukg / school and he seems to like the environment a lot. Everyone from the director of the school to his class teachers were flexible and willing to work with us, to get him accustomed to the new environment. We showed up 1.5 months later than our scheduled date and paid the term fee ( Rs 7500 ) for the current term. The fee covers everything including his meals and supplies. Uniforms and Bus are separate... due to the proximity of the school to our house, we decided to drop/pick him by car for the first month.

Boy-o-Boy, kids from my experience so far do nothing but watch TV/Cartoons and Movies. I am trying to get my kid outdoors, couple of my team members gave me references to a cricket/tennis training facility, another one gave me a reference to a taekwondo teacher who comes home to teach kids, etc. I am going for Cricket primarily to get him used to a team sport and tennis for the physical activity. Will update more on these once I finalize on them.

Started driving on my own during night and evening hours. I was driving in hyderabad before I came to the US, but it feels very different now since the traffic in hyderabad is in the worst shape I have ever seen. You should have seen the traffic between Road #3 and Punjagutta on the day before diwali weekend. Took me almost 1 hour, to get from jubilee checkpost to punjagutta center.

I am still lagging in taking care of myself on the Physical Fitness front, but I decided to make the best out of the situation by taking the stairs at the office. Some of my team look at me like I am crazy, but I plan to continue doing this as much as I can.

My pet projects are finally on track and I am doing my best to spend atleast 1 to 2 hours a week on them. Currently looking for some junior programmers that can help me with the basic work... heard that I can hire some good parttime programming help for less than Rs 5000, which should solve some major bottlenecks for me.

Hyderabad Real Estate : Corruption, Investments and My Strategy

Housing / Real Estate are the most expensive in Hyderabad. With 1 sq. yard .. equivalent of 9 sq. ft going for an average of 20,000 in most live-able areas and upto 50,000 in the posh areas, it has become a challenge to find a suitable living space in Hyderabad. Commercial / Main road / prime plots if not kabza'd or taken over by crooks/politicians will fetch you 100,000 per sq yd on main roads of Jubilee and Banjara hills.

Corruption is very rampant in real estate transactions in the best areas of the city. There are some plots being sold with multiple registrations and some being put under litigation by the original owners / pattadar's of the nawab time. Now a days, it has become compulsory to have every member of the seller/original owners family sign on the sale deed to avoid any issues in the future. Settlement mafia's are rampant, they some how get the common people with good land into trouble and settle for 10-20% of the value etc..

On real estate investments in apts and houses, its important to realize that the days of 100-300% returns are gone if you invest today, and even the 50-100% returns are very rare. The large returns are available to the folks who are plugged in to the political/industrial families and can acquire land before projects are announced or for companies like infosys [ who is evolving to be the biggest land grabber in India today ].

Coming back to the housing thing, the house I currently rent would cost me around 3 to 4 crores to buy ( 30 to 40 Million rupees).. and the possibility of this area moving up 100% in 1 year is very unlikely.. [ who knows.. I have been wrong many times..;-) ]

My thought wrt buying in my favourite area is different.. Correct me if I am wrong.. I some how am not too big on house ownership after living through it in the US. Too much of dead capital .. Atleast we had home equity loans to draw upon in the US. Now, I pay 30,000 pm / ~Rs 10/sqft all inclusive.. [ No extra charge for maintenance, repairs, servant quarter, solar heater, 24 hr muncipal water .. and just have to let my landlord know to get things fixed when they are broken etc. ]. Yes, 30K are running out of your account pm, but I would hear a giant sucking sound if I had to pay the bank @ 11% on a loan of 24 Mil Rs...

Here is my understanding about deductability of interest in India.. The max deduction you can have on housing interest is 1.5Lac/annum so going to a max of 15 Lac loan@10% will get you the best benefit for the early years. A nice article here. . .... So, what good does it do paying 4 Lacs of interest on a 40 Lac Loan ?. I certainly agree that appreciation is there, but do you think its worth buying an apt in the current market at Rs.5000/sqft ?

Some of you asked me what I am doing with the money if I have not bought a house.. I still have a sizeable amount left in the USD, dont want to touch it unless I am sure I can consistently beat the ~15% I am able to generate Year over Year. Of the money I have in hand, some risk capital has gone into speculative land deals [ Jai Telangana ;-) ], invested in some mid level housing where the values are more affordable and can fetch some good rental income and thirdly sticking to the true and tried 15% compounding with some of the investments. With the small amount left, I am trying to leverage it as a down payment to leverage a govt subsidized investment in a family business/ industrial unit.

Hope this strategy will pay off in the long run and I am not too worried about the future since Uncle Sam and Social Security are supposed to take care of me and my family ;-).. Yeah Right !!!

All feedback regarding this article is welcome...

Utilities, Telephone and Other Bills in Hyderabad

Typically 10 - 15 th of the month is where I receive all my Bills. So far, I have not seen any shockers but here is a summary of my observations. Many companies including mine, have eseva centers within their campus where you can pay off the bills. My driver can also handle this for me, but I decided to visit and experience the eseva facilities this week. Will update on that later...

Electric Bill : The bill was for 242 units, for Rs 752 including all taxes. The pricing for power in hyderabad varies based on tier/slab. 3.05 per unit upto 200 units, 4.75 upto 300 units, 5.50 or above 300 units. This amount is still reasonable considering we have been using our Fridge, TV's, Laptops, Lights, Fans etc along with partial usage of A/C's for the last 20 days.

Gas : Cooking gas seems to be very scarce now a days with the govt subsidized domestic cylinder going for Rs 300 and equivalent commercial cylinder going for Rs 600. So, most restaurants, hotels are using domestic cylinders causing a shortage in the market, also a rush towards installing lpg kits in auto's and taxi's is inflating the demand for cooking gas. Most people seem to have more than 2 or 3 connections and rotate their cylinders without ever running out of gas. I have not applied for a connection of my own yet, we are just using the cylinders, regulators provided by friends and family. I will soon be joining one of the groups by adding a few empty cylinders of my own to the pool.

Milk : Plenty of supply around, many diaries that have sprung up in AP including Heritage, Vijaya, Mother Diary etc., supply a lot of options in Fat Content etc. A near by store delivers our milk by 7:30 every morning. Toned milk costs Rs 16 per litre while whole milk costs Rs 20 per litre. Expect to spend around Rs 700 with delivery charges etc. There are other options from local farmers etc., for now..we are sticking to the pasteurized options until our kids get used to the change.

Internet : Expect to spend around Rs 1000. Most companies reimburse this expense unless you work for someone that doesnt put you on a leash via a Laptop. I am yet to figure out the best mix of connections to have. I have SIFY broadband at home but its been very unreliable [ recently some one cut off and stole 1/2KM of cable in my neighborhood ]. I am testing a tata indicom wireless broadband card for backup and it is working fine for browsing/email/telnet etc.

Maid/Driver etc. : Looking for a reliable driver and maid ?, good luck!!!.. Driver rates vary from 3 to 4.5K depending on whether they are also acting as your errand runners or not. Some drivers refuse to do any household chores/errands etc., so ask this question ahead of time. Maid's and Maid Services are available between 1 to 2K, but finding a reliable one is the toughest task of all.

Non-Telugu speaking junta arriving in hyderabad will realize that hiring a hindi speaking driver/maid will be the biggest challenge. A colleague of mine is paying 5K to his driver just to keep a Hindi speaking driver/errand guy around during his 1st year in Hyderabad. He says everyone including the watchman cannot speak Hindi and its becoming a challenge for his family. The local hindi speaking labor has moved into professional jobs with Security, Construction, Transportation companies and the new arrivals are from coastal AP and have very limited/zero Hindi... may not be a bad idea to buy "Learn telugu in 30 days" before you arrive.

15 mins are up.. more next time..

Dusshera, Diwali, Ramadan.. Party Time !!!

Dusshera and Diwali are now fully commercialized in Hyderabad .. Just 1 week before dusshera, special offers on everything from appliances to groceries to clothes have been relesed. I have seen advertisements for special offers on purchase of groceries too.. We are fully hooked into the western sale culture here..

With Dusshera, Ramadan and Diwali around the corner, companies are organizing many [ or should I say too many..] parties to let their employees have fun during this time. Many companies have planned major concerts, parties etc., for diwali and the element of surprise and the boasting rights go to the one with the coolest/hippest/biggest rock/other band performing at their party. For Dusshera dandia is in full swing along with dance competitions, informal and formal parties, along with a medley of sweet and savoury offerings on every floor.

I had the honor of judging a dance competition, and I was amazed at the energy and the enthu displayed by the young members of the teams. Most participation is from the new kids out of college under the direction of their senior members and these activities work as the best team building excercises. Competition was at a business-unit level and the cheering squads were in full force with their customized cheers etc. Did I mention that there was also a cheering award and it went to the loudest team [ not much has changed with the hyderabadi culture of enjoying things to the fullest along with the rowdiness of the crowd... poor MC was having a tough time controlling them ... I hope you all remember the cheers from college days in hyderabad...things like jeete ga bhai jeetega.. ; vittala vittala..; and so on and so on.... ].

I am a pain to deal with, when it comes to appreciating art or dance, but this one was really cool.. nothing traditional, nothing too exotic or western, it was a medley of everything with beats that I never expected could be integrated so well. Each team had 6 different song and dance mix with custom music mixes integrated as one show. Makeup, Music, Crowd everything made it worthwhile and I promised myself that I am never gonna miss these events in the future. The networking and socializing opportunities at these gatherings are endless. The competition was followed by dandia night, and after guzzling some extra calories through sweets, hyderabadi samosa's and sweet lassi etc., we headed down for a nicotine fix.

Other Updates :

Last week we had a party at Touch, to celebrate some wins/growth of the organization. Party started 1 hour late but quickly gained momemtum. I need to get better at this time sense thing in India.. if the invite is for 7:00 .. dont even think of going there until 7:45 - 8:00. Touch had great ambience, simple interiors that give you a feel of an wide open space but at the same time providing the space to relax and connect with the party goers. Excellent Drink offerings and Staff, but food was average [ may be it has something to do with the menu picked by our event organizer ] .. Dessert Bar as always was my favourite.. I am not sure what I ate, but I had multiple servings.. Drinks, DJ and Music made up for the zing missing on in the food buffet.


Another team of mine had their quarterly bash at Runway-9 or something like that, I couldnt make it due to a customer meeting, but will update you the next time I am there.


Haleem is the speciality of this season in Hyderabad. Yesterday I was reading that Hyderabadi Haleem is now being exported to the Mid East and is a crowd favourite in most restaurants there. To enjoy/expose this delicacy of Hyderabad to my team, I am organizing a haleem party at Pista House near Hitec City.. [ depending on # of confirmed attendees, we may either go there or have them deliver it to our break area] this restaurant is supposed to be one of the best ones for haleem in Hyderabad and also has an outlet closer to the Hitec city area. We are heading there in 2 weeks .. and will update you soon about that.

Next week I am headed to a southern state for an offsite workout/gathering of leadership teams and may not be updating the blog... Until then...
Happy Birthday T and Happy Dusshera to all of you

2 Months since My Arrival

Its exactly 2 months since I arrived in hyderabad... No regrets, no challenges to deal with, enjoyed every bit of my stay here... bottomless biryani buffets... litres of teachers and blenderspride scotch [ may be thats a little exaggerated ;-) ] and the ability to re-live in a fun culture of dakhani [ hyderabadi ] phrases including my favourites "maakki kiri kiri" and "bindaas". Today I really laughed when a team member said "pareshan mat lena sir....", to calm me down about an issue....

In the last 60 days, I was able to complete the basic tasks like renting a house in hyderabad, move in, get connected, hire a maid+driver and move my family here. Couple of things I am really behind on are my son's school, drive on my own [ need to figure out how to get a license and insurance ], physical fitness / gym and a pet project I started while I was in the US. I hope to get on track by the 100th day or so..

With the global nature of the business that Indians deal with, work hours are not well defined. The higher you climb the ladder, the worse it gets.. though not a daily activitiy, you are expected to participate in calls, reviews etc., with australiam/APAC customers in the morning, Europeans in the afternoon and America's in the evenings. So a workday of mine goes from 11am to 7pm on some days to 2pm to 10pm on somedays. The best part is that you get to slack off on both Indian as well as Customer Holidays ;-). Companies have adapted well to this global demands with extensive work from home options, including wireless internet, vpn, blackberries/other devices that are tied into the company phone networks so that you have a virtual office extension that comes with you all the time.

Some of you asked me about lunch etc.. so here it goes. Cafeteria's at work are very well maintained / managed in many of the large companies. Food goes from the traditional thali between Rs 25 to 50 depending on the options along with traditional offerings like biryani, curry+paratha etc. at less than Rs 50 for a large serving. Cafeterias also have free coffee/nescafe/tea machines along with a coffeeday express or similar store that offers gourmet coffee between Rs 10 to 30 depending on your choice. Other standard things include a bakery counter where you can buy puffs, rolls, breads, sandwiches between Rs 5 to Rs 20, and a fruit bar that offers a medley of fresh fruits from Rs 10 to Rs 20 based on the size of serving. In some locations of our organization, food is free for the basic thali type and you pay extra for others. In some organizations like google, its all free including the gourmet varieties of everything and anything.

More later...

Broadband, Sundae, Real Estate, Telephones, Banking : An Update from Hyderabad

Beam Broadband : I ordered this service atmost 4 weeks ago and am yet to see any movement on this. The company called me a couple of times to schedule installation and never showed up. Hope they will show up some day and now that I have my primary broadband through sify, I am not too worried about them.

Sify Broadband : This is my primary provider now and the service has been excellent so far. Had 2 issues and 1 issue was fixed within 30 mins. The 2nd issue was related to bad weather and looks like a tree fell and severed the fiber connectivity to our neighborhood. This took them almost 18 hours to fix and my vonage service was down during this time. The best part is that SIFY people were courteous enough to call me and update me about the progress and when the service was up.

Network Services : Vonage works well on SIFY if the internet is up, VPN, remote desktoping to US from india are working very well. while there is some lag from home, its no different than remote desktop from the office facilities in Hyderabad.

Sundae/Desserts : Based on my previous story about Ohri's Hyderabad and its sundae's, my wife tried the awful awful sundae as a Lunch Replacement.. dont ask me that story ;-).. She says its "awesome".. so, go try it and email me your feedback. We also tried various others with names like lovers paradise, tall lady and lewinsky... this has now turned into a regular session to unwind after a busy day of work.

Telephones : Though the providers have matured over the last couple of years, they still keep adding subscribers without additional capacity. One other challenge you will face is that the roaming agreements are not that good so, you may loose connectivity when you are far away from the city.

Banking : ICICI bank account is fully operational after a long struggle to prove my address, and I am happy with the netbanking services they provide. Even bill pay, trading and other services are available along with SMS notifications for account activities like checks/withdrawals etc. I applied for a Demat+Trading account and waiting for that to be activated. These services require tons of paperwork and have extensive beauracracy tied to them. Banking institutions tried the mcdonald's "dumb it down " principle .. so, no one wants to think beyond the box.. an live example was a friend of mine who tried to cash 2 checks at ICICI. The teller asked him to get 2 separate tokens to cash these checks. The first token flashed on counter #X, and his second token flashed on counter #Y within 30 seconds of the first... He is yet to figure out a way to use 2 counters at once... This is normally how the indian companies deal with operations and customer service..

When i run into folks like Beam Cable Installer, ICICI bank and the many other service providers that never keep their word and ask for wierd documentation..., I remind myself that I have come here with very low expectations ... and that helps me stay cool.... I see the issues, laugh and move on.. Life has been entertaining and relaxed in Hyderabad so far.

Appliance Shopping in Hyderabad : Mr. R to my rescue

We embarked on shopping for the kitchen and other appliances that I was badly waiting to acquire including the Split A/C's needed for my house.

Appliances : All models of refrigerators, microwaves, cooking ranges, mixies, cookers, Washers, Dryers etc., are available in a wide variety over here in Hyderabad/India. Samsung, LG, Kenstar, Whirlpool etc.

• Refrigerators vary from 25K [ tall models in India ] to 50k [ Side by Side ] to the 100K [ side by side with bells and whistles like mini bar etc. built in ]. Other features include no-frost, twin cooling [ more efficient since both sides are driven by different evaporators], cool select zones [ to adjust for vegetables vs other food ] and myriad other features..Samsung Fridge
• Microwave ovens come in all ranges and sizes from 20Litres to 37 Litre capacity with a number of features that I have never seen in the U.S. These features include a rotisserrie, Grill, Convection Oven and many other features including jog dial controls etc. They vary from 4000 to 15000.
  
• Cooking ranges come primarily in the gas with 4 or 5 burners and sunflame seems to be the leader in this. There are even the thin ranges which you can initially place on a table and in the future integrate into the granite counter tops like you see in the upscale houses in US. These vary from 3000 to 17000 for the thin models.
  
• Washers come in top loading, front loading, automatic from 5.5 kg to 10kg loads. I am really surprised to see the front loading models being available for very low prices in the market. People generally do not go for dryers but they are available in case you want to splurge. Washer prices vary by capacity and features. I have seen them go from 7000 to 70k, with the front loading + 6.5 kg being ~20000 - 25000.
  
• Airconditioners : They come in both the split as well as the Window type. You can also go for the larger multi-split which would be able to support multiple rooms with a single compressor. Being an ops guy, I preferred independent systems for A/C for redundancy [ or failover ;-) ] and I decided to go with the 1.5 Ton Split A/C for my 3 rooms...Samsung A/C

Now to my story, we decided to go with samsung all the way for the fridge, A/C, Washer and Microwave. We visited a couple of stores to understand the pricing and how it varied from place to place. We picked a fridge [ side by side ] and 3 A/C's and were about to finalize at what we thought was a great discount. Here is where you have to be very careful when shopping in India [ At least my experience was so.. ].

We reached home and were talking to my neighbor [ Referred to as Mr. R ] who said that the prices were too high and that the dealer may be taking me for a ride. He said dealers play these games with list price, sale price etc., and asked me for the model #'s and put in a call to 2 dealers and his friend who works for samsung. Within 24 hours, he came back with pricing that really surprised me and had major savings compared to what I have been quoted

The best part is that Mr. R gave me a well organized tabular entries on a white paper, that listed each model #, what to look for to make sure its the right model being delivered, what accessory#'s to expect, what else to demand in terms of service and freebies etc. The best part is the 1500 installation charge that the dealer claimed was non negotiable some how got knocked down to 1000, and he even got a few more freebies and a deep discount on the stabilizer etc.

Now, this is what I hate about shopping in India or may be I should love this, but being an outsider to this type of haggling, I was already declaring victory [ thought I was so cool that I already learned the tricks ] when I saw the prices go down in the first place.

The dealer is supposed to stop by tomorrow, take an order, give me a written committment on all the above items, a review with Mr. R, and I will be signing on the dotted line. Overall $2700 or Rs1.2 Lac for Fridge [ equivalent to what I had in US in a whirlpool model ] + 3 A/C [ incl installation ] + 1 Washer seems to be a good deal and Mr. R agrees that I am in line with what the desi shoppers would get when they visit a store... and he added.. your job is to watch out for what they deliver.. otherwise it will be a whole different story ;-)

Watch Out !!! ... Lets say you made a deal for an AC 1.5 ton of model JWDB which is a newer model, the dealer just delivers the older JWDA do make up for the additional discount he may be providing you. Since both of them look the same, you may not even realize the difference except in the newer compressor features etc that make the new one superior.

Oh BTW, aquaguard executive [ term for the poor sales guy in india ] is coming in tomorrow for a demo on their new water purifier.. What a contrast.... this guy showed up 1 day early to do the demo and my wife had to send him away to come on tuesday, while the BEAM broadband cable guy has not shown up until now.. 24 days and counting.. glad I called SIFY after 2 weeks.

VOIP through Vonage in Hyderabad

Finally, I have broadband at home in Hyderabad. [ This is my first post from home ]. I signed up for the unlimited service which costs Rs1000+tax and provides a 256KBPS speed on downloads and 64/128 on uploads. Service is provided by SIFY and the qualityof the service is excellent. On initial pings to the gateway at their facility, we saw delays of 15ms and the installer called up the central office and some how got it down to 5ms.

My first test was to setup the Netgear Wireless Router and program the static IP. This required the installer to call in again with the mac address of the router and once that was added, everything worked liked a charm. I Was able to configure the wireless lan, and tested various sites including the ones in US which were blazing fast compared to what I have seen in my past experiences in Hyderabad.

Next I embarked on connecting the vonage router that I badly needed to keep in touch with friends and family back in the U.S. We hooked up the vonage router which comes with a nice feature of 110/220v adapter to the 220v power and connected it using a cat5 cable to the netgear router. My first call to the US was audible, but had a lot of packet drops and upon investigation, I found that vonage provides a bandwidth saver for connections that were not Cable/DSL quality. Couple of clicks on the vonage site, a reboot of the entire equipment after a couple of hours changed the call quality from worse to excellent. Since then, I called a couple of you from my new line and I could not hear any delays that you would normally hear on a VOIP line.

You will need :
1. A Wireless Router ( Get the ones that can take static ip + uid/password ). Do look for a 220v adapter for your router, its a pain to attach a converter in front of the adapter and the heat generated by the 110v to 220v converter is making me nervous.. I may go out and get a 220v adapter for the router tomorrow.

2. Basic Vonage adapter.. comes with the 110v/220v power cord.. so no issues here

3. A UPS would be a good addition, I will look for some during my first visit to the computer shops in ameerpet and will report back on how that goes.

4. A basic phone setup.. again, look for adapters that support 220v, using a 220 to 110v converter for the long term is a pain.

Hyderabad Customs : Container Clearance

Happy Birthday G and H!!! ...

The most dreaded time of receiving the goods has arrived. .. thanks to the excellent work done by my packers and the unloaders.. I am happy to report that everything made it without a single dent or scratch..

The customs clearance process has 3 steps followed by unloading and unpacking.

1. Destuffing of the container and 24 hr cooling off period
2. Examination and Duty Payment [ Officer will go through the boxes and estimate the duty on the items he thinks are dutiable ]
3. Delivery / Release [ Once duty is paid, they release your items to the delivery agent ]
4. Unloading at the House
5. Unpacking [ I did not sign up for this service.. since I had extra help at home ]

Tip1 : dont get into this on your own, have a 2 to 3 helpers along with you to make this easy. Too many things will happen at once and with 10 unloaders working on your consignment, its very likely they will drop, drag and do everything possible. Remember its a fixed price contract for them..

Tip2 : Have an excellent packing list, try not to put a value in there if possible but do highlight the year and model for electronics since it makes it easy to negotiate the value of the items while the officer is inspecting

Tip3 : All labor groups have an expectation of a tip, so talk to them before they start the work and set the expecation of a better tip if the work was done to your satisfaction. I spent 1200 Rs of tips for destuffing, loading and unloading and it was well worth it since they put in extra time and effort to do it right.

Tip4 : This was a very obvious risk that the inspector was taking by randomly inspecting the boxes, by law they are supposed to look through all boxes.. Do not bring alcohol, but if you do, it may be wise to declare it. My inspector asked me multiple times about it and indicated that his colleague has been reprimanded recently when a box with bottles was dropped by the loaders and was caught by the warehouse security before it left.

Overall, the customs inspectors were very friendly but lazy, they were so busy reading the newspaper until they got a call to expedite my container release..

... Now to the story.. ;-)

On wednesday, it was the ganesh nimajjanam and the shipping agent indicated that it may be a better idea to go to ICD ( Inland Container Depot ) located in the moosapet area on thursday. Destuffing was planned for wednesday but we were unable to find the labor or the officers that could sign off on breaking the container seal due to the holiday in Hyderabad. Due to other plans I had for thursday, I scheduled our family driver as my proxy [ a real task master ] to represent me at the destuffing area. Destuffing took around 3 hours, and he offered them a bonus ahead of time in return for not dropping boxes or dragged the furniture on the warehouse floor. Everything went well, and the unloaders even put some extra blankets below the furniture in the warehouse to earn their bonus etc.

Friday was the day for examination and duty payment. The Assistant commissioner who was responsible for the office was on leave and the rest of the office decided to show up late. I went in at my scheduled time of 11:30 and no one showed up until 12:30. At 12:30, I couldnt take it anymore and called a family member who knows a few higher ups in the customs department and after a few calls, everything started to move on its own, with everyone taking extra initiative to get things closed asap.

I had 3 helpers with me who were responsible for keeping their eyes on the consignment and the parallel processes. During examination, all boxes will be opened, doesnt matter what's in it. So, I left 2 of my helpers to watch the labor that was working to get the consignment ready for inspection. This included lining up the boxes in a row and opening them so that the customs official can look into the boxes randomly. While this was going on, I sat with the examination officer and identified which boxes had the items I wanted to declare, primarily electronics and valuables. They were not worried about used furniture or clothes.

One important tip is to create a very detailed packing list while the container is being loaded. It helped me a lot since all the boxes with electronics were marked with a E, the official had an easy time finding them and estimating the values etc.. Also note the year and model if possible in packing list, so that they can estimate it faster. I had to pay 15000+ in duty, which was much lower than I expected.. [ considering I had good bit of electronic stuff with me .. ]. In some cases, the customs agent looked through cases that had very basic items to make sure that it really had what is listed in the packing list. He stressed on the importance of not taking the risk with hidden alcohol multiple times and then signed off on the duty estimate. Rest of the process was handled by my helpers, they paid the challan in the extension counter of ICD, got the Assistant commissioners signature for release and then loaded up the container into 3 DCM trucks.

Trucks reached home at around 9pm, due to a union stipulated dinner break between 7:30 - 8:30 for the unloaders. While my team watched and made sure that nothing was being dropped or dragged by the unloaders, all items were brought into the house [ 1st floor ]. One challenge was with our 3 seater Leather sofa, that would not fit in the stairwell. They left it for the night in my neighbors house and returned in the morning to lift it through the balcony. Since I did not sign up for the unpacking service, I utilized my helpers to unpack the furniture and other major items, which produced a ton of waste ( 80 wrapping blankets + 100 empty boxes ) on the first day itself.

Overall, it was a tedious process, but leveraging your contacts for the right purpose [ Due to the audits around ICD, they are willing to only get involved in expediting the process.. which I thought was fair.. ] and having extra help on hand can make this process easy.

Container Arrived in Hyderabad..

Got a call from the local shipping agent that my container has arrived in Hyderabad. On this note, I caught up with a couple of friends and colleagues that have moved here recently using the same company and the horror stories surrounding the process in hyderabad are not very encouraging. Folks have had to literally beat up the shipping company's agent before they got anything done. To be fair, this story is not specific to the one I used, it seems to be common with all the local shipping agents.

I have put in a call for extra help from my family, and reinforcements are arriving for the day I take delivery of the container. The biggest challenge seems to be with the process of unloading [ into customs warehouse ] and loading [ back into small trucks to be delivered at the house]. Here they use the small DCM trucks and it takes atleast 3 to 5 truck loads before everything reaches home and you can understand what all can go wrong during this time including the theft of small boxes etc.

Today is ganesh nimajjanam in hyderabad, and its an official holiday for the state govt offices and schools. Considering the traffic and people movement issues, even MNC's have asked folks to stay home unless absolutely necessary and only essential personnel have been asked to show up. While driving to work, I noticed that a lot of shops have not even opened their doors.

More later..

Re-Initiation and House Rental

I titled this a re-initiation based on an old document on wikipedia about tribal initiation.. "An initiation is also a ceremony by which a person is introduced into a society, or other organized body, especially the rite of admission into a order."

The initiation ceremony with colleagues and team was with a long drawn out drinks and dinner at Zaffran Exotica on Rd12. Food was above average consisting of multiple rounds of appetizers and drinks, and then followed by a simple rice based main course and dessert. Blenderspride and Old monk still seem to be favourites in mid level restaurants in the town. Also, caught up with a number of friends and visited various joints including Ohri's, Deccan@Kakatiya, Little Italy etc..

Last week also brought along the long and boring KANK [ kabhi alvida na kehna ] making it my first movie at IMAX and in hyderabad. I expected a lot more masala and entertainment from Karan Johar than the boring infidelity story. God, rani was crying all through the 2nd half...Loved amitabh's role as "sexy sam".. Reminded me of Hugh Heffner from playboy... After the movie a stop at Ohri's for a midnight coffee and we headed to the "end of mid term" bash @ISB, which was in full swing at 3:00 am with booze and music in high gear.

On the home front, signed a lease in Jubilee Hills after a long search. For now I settled in a 2700 sqft house and plan to move out in a year into my own place. We have a nice family in the ground floor and they are going out of their way to make me comfortable etc.

Independent House Rental : When it comes to independent houses around jubilee, banjara, srinagar, prashashan nagar, hitec etc., they vary from 17k to 50K for 1700 - 4000 sqft and also the price goes up with amenities. Normally it goes around Rs100 per sqft in a good neighborhood with nice features etc. I liked this house since its a stones throw away from my kid's school, coffee day, food world, a couple of nice restaurant [ trying not to give away the exact location ]. Security is acceptable and my house is half a km from the main road making it more secure due to a lack of pass-through traffic. Second on my list was a beautiful house at the edge of a valley with a private lawn etc., but the drive was too long from where I intend to join my kids and from my office.

Apartment Rentals : On the apartment front, I felt claustrophobic in the big townships I visited. There were some major builders who divided up 1500-1700 sqft into a 4 bedroom apt and the bedrooms were smaller than my hotel room at ameerpet. IVRCL towers is a departure from the rest and is very well laid out. The only challenge is that its far away from the city for now, but as hyderabad expands, this area will certainly become a city of its Own. Its around 14KM from Jubilee Hills checkpost and 20 KM from Ameerpet.

Main city of hyderabad is saturated at this time. No growth in property values and everyone is running towards the outskirts. Sainik Puri, Tarnaka, HabsiGuda etc., are also good areas with low rentals, in the 8k to 15K range, but they are far away from the IT Centers and some of my team members take 1.5 Hour to 2 hours on a good day to get to Madhapur. Future may look very good once the ORR [ outer ring road ] is complete. There was a newspaper column yesterday interviewing a couple of folks that bougt acres of land 100 KM away from hyderabad... I doubt it will get to 100KM away from the center, but the city is certainly evolving into a world class and happening place with the new airport and the knowledge corridor being connected by an 8 lane, elevated expressway soon. [No Hype .. Real Facts ]

There are some new and very upscale townships being constructed by Jayabheri named Orange County, [.. wasnt that the county bankrupt at one time ?] as well as L&T in the knowledge corridor -aka- gacchi bowli. They are going around 3500-4000 per sqft and are looking like the next big towers that will come up in this area. Also heard that there is a 90 floor tower being constructed soon some where around here. While I was in the US it was very hard to believe the hype, and believe me, there is a lot of Hype .. but Hyderabad is a happening place.

Thats enough for now.. more later..

1st Week in Hyderabad

As expected, life was easy the first week. Left my sons with the grand parents and joined work 2 days ago. Hyderabad realestate is steaming hot and thats all people want to talk about. Doing my best to ask dumb questions about roads and areas to divert the topics but it some how ends up being a discussion about how the real estate is doing there.

I am put up at Rd#12 Banjara and everything is very accessible. Roads are in pretty bad shape compared to what they were during the congress plenary 6 months ago.. I think its due to the rains. Tried to visit Hyderabad Central and PVR Cinemas on a sunday evening and realized that it was a major safety hazard to even consider going in there at that times. People were packed in every floor and the only way in and out was through the main door [ update : Firemarshall has issued an ultimatum to Hyderabad central to fix the issues or it will be shutdown in 2 weeks ]

McDonalds opened its doors in Hyderabad recently at IMAX with a 20Rs Veg burger, 20Rs Softie and 6Rs fries etc. This is a big hit in hyderabad, and there are lines in front of this joint all day long. Heard some one complain that there was no cheese in the burger.. I dont intend to try it any time soon... Will keep you posted if I do.. Subways seem to be doing well, also a new concept called Yo!China is doing well. 3 More mc'y'd's and 2 subways are expected to open soon.

Some eye openers since my arrival.. [ mostly through newspapers or tv ]

1. Beggar mafia is REAL : Cnn IBN had a hidden camera expose that showed how doctors help beggars amputate their hands/legs etc., and some of the beggars that were forced into this profession by others

2. Internet based NRI marriages are not working : TV9 had a program in which they claimed that atleast 800 AP women are affected. Some cases were bad, one guy just left his wife in the US airport, took her passport and left; one family tried to kill her in India to avoid the issues they woudl face in US. Gist of the story was that India now has some sort of a domestic issue agreement with US and that they would be able to take action going forward.

3. Land Grabbing, Fraudulent Documents, Defrauding NRI's is at a peak. One realtor that was working with me to find a rental said.. and I quote him.. "Take this sir, belongs to an NRI and I have him in my pocket, I will get you what ever you want .. ".. decided not to deal with him any longer.

4. Refer to Wow Hyderabad .. to see whats happening around HYD and whats coming up. Focusses more on the high end happenings, but its a good start.

In Hyderabad

Hurray!!!!.. I am finally here.. In true bollywood/tollywood style, I wanted to kneel down and kiss the ground... that would be too much Over Action [ Or was it the stuff on the ground that changed my mind ? ]. Once in the terminal, I learned that we were the first plane to land that night and others that arrived before ours were redirected to Chennai and Bangalore due to the rains.

First leg of the flight to amsterdam was very relaxing on a new A330 used by Northwest. My son enjoyed the video on demand that allowed him to watch various shows including Dora and Sponge Bob. Airline food in the NW flight seemed sub par to what was served on the KLM flight. Child Meal was very good on both NW and KLM, it was a combination of health+junk food that kids love [ Nuggets, Yogurt, Juice, HashBrows, Cookies, String Cheese etc.]

Forming a line to check-in at Amsterdam schipol airport was an eye opener even before I entered India. The KLM gate staff could have done a better job in controlling the overall process .."Nothing new... everyone wants to get in first as if the flight is going to leave without them.." quipped, one of the staff members in his dutch accent while checking my passports . KLM had a MD-11 on service which I thought was a good choice considering the short runway at HYD.

KLM flight crew was the best I had seen in my travels over the past 14 years. They were very patient, friendly and I saw them going beyond the call to help families travelling with infants. Not sure if its normal or not, but I noticed that there were atleast 8+ infants in the section of the plane I was in. Most of them seem to be going back home with their grand parents and the crew was very helpful to them even carrying the infants and while the custodians took a bathroom break.

As we descended into Hyderabad, I could clearly see that the sky was overcast with streaks of water on the window. I suddenly remembered the short runway and the number of times international flights had near misses of overshooting the runway. As expected the pilot slammed the breaks as soon as he hit the ground. MD-11 screeched to a halt at the end of the runway and I could see the Scooty parked in a house not too far from my window..

Immigration, Customs were a breeze [ did I mention that this was the only flight that landed for the night ] and we headed home with family.

D-Day Leaving for the Airport

The last few days have been pretty hectic with a quick business trip to a nearby city to meet up with an existing customer and the team. Today, I am leaving for Hyderabad, India via amsterdam in Northwest/KLM.

It was a very emotional and enjoyable weekend.. spent a lot of time with everyone [ friends, family, acquaintances ] we have relied upon for support over the past 13+ years in the US. A last minute trip to McyD's, Starbucks and a night at the Fox & Hound with friends wrapped up stint in the US.

Let me reiterate that my expectations are Very Very Low about having a smooth transition through the rest of the process. I hope that the lower expectations will keep me motivated during the tough initial months in Hyderabad.

Container Shipped today , and 3 days to Go

Local team of packers/movers were here yesterday to get the items ready for the container thats due to arrive tomorrow. This team was really careful in handling and packing the items with extra foam and some times they went overboard by enclosing pillows in padded boxes.

20" container arrived today on a truck after a 30 minute delay. The team of packers that I hired locally loaded the container. As expected, the additional volume created due to boxing of the items left little space to load the last 6 chairs and a couple of other items that we have to leave back. It was a measly 100 cuft left in the garage.. will deal with that later..

Looking back, may be a 40' container would have been better but the value of the left over items does not justify the additional $2+ k. Looking back, I now realized that the cu-ft estimation tools need a 25% adjustment mainly due to the additional volume created by the packers. So, if you use a tool like air7seas for cu-ft calculation, add 20-25% to it and then get the appropriate container.

Now that the shipment has left, we loaded our suitcases etc., and moved to a friends house.

Here is how to get on IT List of High Spenders ?

I always wondered about the folks who were outside the rings of taxation in India, ie, folks who do not have a deduction at the source.. ran into this interesting article on ibnlive .. may not get all those politicians and the big fish that use benami accounts .. but its an excellent start..

..."Government gets information through AIRs on spending of at least Rs 30 lakh in property, Rs two lakh in mutual funds, cash deposits in banks over Rs 10 lakhs annually and credit card spending over Rs two lakhs yearly besides large purchases of equity and purchase of high value plasma television, pen and other luxury items including cars."

3 Weeks to Go..

I had been too busy with activities over the last 2 weeks and forgot to post the updates, will try to summarize the details of the past 2 weeks in this entry.

Shipping : Received exorbitant quotes from corporate movers, so I decided to go with a local mover who will be packing and loading up the container that I booked through Air 7 Seas. Air7Seas also offered packing services, but I decided against that since I didnt want to deal with a subcontractor that I would have no control over. Packing and Shipping is scheduled for 1 week before my move and a 20ft container has been ordered to ship most furniture, personal goods, electronics etc., to Hyderabad.

Travel : Booked my tickets 2 weeks ago through NorthWest and the date has been finalized as 24th of July for my trip back to Hyderabad.

Shopping : Last minute shopping for some kitchen ware and dinner ware was complete over the last 2 weeks. I am still loading up on any critical electronics that I would miss in India, but considering the 220v issue, I am only picking items that can support 220v. Got a new vonage line so that I could stay in touch with friends and colleagues in the US without spending the extra Rs for international calls.

House : Showings were high, we had 42 showings in 4 weeks, and towards the end of last week we received an offer on the house. If there was one challenge in moving back to hyderabad in 7 weeks, it was the sale of the house. Now that its taken care of, we are much more upbeat about the move.

RemoteControlMail : Found this interesting service by DCI, at remotecontrolmail.com. Completed the required forms to start forwarding my mail to this company and will keep it for 1 year until my W-2's etc., are received for this year.

Indian Taxes : Charitable Contributions, Salary Structure

Charitable giving becomes a habit after a couple of years in the U.S. It may initially be coerced [ by the boss ] but the satisfaction surrounding the activities makes it a self initiated process for most of us. No matter what the cause, the end result makes it all worthwhile, since it draws people together who are willingly contributing to an altruistic purpose.

While investigating the tax related items about India, I found this very informative article by Ameet Patel that deals with Charitable Contribution Deductions in India.

Oh .. dont forget to calculate your estimated Indian Taxes using TaxCalculator at Outlook Money..

Outlook Money also has an interesting article on the affect of the recently enacted fringe benefit tax in india. It discusses ways for employers and employees to draw up tax efficient and win-win salary package. Article can be accessed here

Time to call HR and see if this can be leveraged.. or it may already be built into the current package being offered...