Reverse Culture Shock And Time

01 Nov 2022 - Tanmay Jha

If you have been away for a substantial amount of time, you WILL get reverse culture shock. India will simply not be how you remember it. Combine that with how much you have changed over the years you will absolutely get reverse culture shock. I mention some of the things that caught me off guard in Changes I saw, First Few Days, and Driving and Transportation sections but there are tons more. Social norms evolve continuously, and were simply different from back when I used to live here. Increasing adoption of infrastructure and technology have disrupted long held behaviors that you may fondly remember. Political changes, including the rise of Hindutva have also created social changes in attitudes and discourse that may be new for you. Massive growth of new industries like ecommerce and tech startups have imported many aspects of American work culture, while social media and exposure to movies and shows have let a good amount of regular American culture seep in. For instance, this year I saw children trick-or-treating on Halloween!

As you go through this transition, your feelings about your move will swing wildly in both directions. This is quite similar to how culture shock would have worked initially when you moved abroad - it comes in waves. A colleague gave me a good rule of thumb - give it one month for each year you have been away (so if you were away for 10 years, give it 10 months). We will call it Anderson’s rule. How you feel at the end of that period will be a fairly reliable indicator of how you will continue to feel about moving back. I found this advice extremely useful, because no matter how much you like moving back, there are going to be several shocking, frustrating moments. It can be how job interviews in India are conducted, or the flooding of roads after a bit of rain, finding the tax system baffling, or simply unwelcome changes to the routines you have built over the years. Maybe you will eventually decide you don’t like India, and will move somewhere else. Maybe you will decide you like it and stay here. On the flip side, maybe you really like the proximity to family and good food initially, but over time most of the negative stuff starts turning you off. Either way, its important to give time to this decision and not start packing your bags at the first moment of frustration, or start committing to long term decisions after you have only been here a month. This transition will go a lot easier if you treat it like moving to a new country, and not like moving back home.