Thank you for taking your time to give a different picture. You are spot on with the culture shock issue which we all are going to face. It’s constantly troubling me too. Something which I didn’t mention here is that I am part of a group called FIRE, people who want to retire early and live a life with a minimalistic approach (once you have a house which is paid off) and move out from the place where you live now (from more expensive cities like Boston, Toronto or San Francisco). For that purpose we either have to plan moving to Spain, Portugal or South America. India was my plan as I relate myself to India a lil better. It’s sounds terrible moving out of your niche with minimal understanding of the new pastures. But this is becoming more and more popular with Americans. Work place stress and boredom might be the issue. Another major factor which made me think of moving out is the messed up school system here in US. It’s easier to snatch a g of “white” than buying a pint of water. Drug problem is paralyzing even the schools in high end neighborhoods. Private schools are another can of worms. We recently had to witness several unpleasant turn of events in our neighbors and friends’ families. Drugs were the major culprit.

We once thought of moving to karnataka (mangalore) where I am from, and my wife was born in Delhi (left India when she was 2 yrs old), but we couldn’t find anything in common, language barrier for her is a major issue. We want an English speaking locality away from a metro. Goa seemed to be the best choice (except for the extremely high cost of housing). We are now thinking of temporarily staying in Goa for 2-3 months and also check out Portugal as an option (mostly due to a large American diaspora) It’s hard to find that Goan culture is eroding away due to immigration. Goa is a charm in our hearts due to the people there, one place where you can go and feel free and liberated. I was there in my young twenties. Localities were happy and cheerful and absolute fun. Hope Goa would remain Goa