2 years of moving back to India

It's 2 years that I moved back to India and I had several thoughts on how life will be after 2 years when I boarded the flight from Boston. Lot of things changed in last two years and lot of habits/tastes/life style/preferences did too.

I still long for Chipotle, Not your Avg Joe's, Joseph's II and several other cuisines but Hyderabad has lot to offer as well including Hard Rock, TGIF, Chilis (soon to be opened) with Sub Ways, McD's, KFC's all over the places and offcourse the best Indian cuisines and local delicacies like Bawarchi, Gokul chat and more modern restaurants like Indijoe from BJN group.

Hyderabad has also caught up on Malls with the new Inorbit and GVK one being on par with international shopping outlets and experience.

Internet has revolutionized several business and life seems easy for booking movies, train tickets, paying utility bills and banking but there is more scope for improvement on few areas. Internet speeds and prices, I believe India is much ahead of many developed countries - 4mbps speed for Rs.600 ($12) from Beam Cable - just amazing.

Cell phones are one of most common commodity in India now and I think India provides the best services, tariffs, plans and phone models.

Traffic is one thing that still makes life miserable but after a while the long honks, heavy black fumes and zig zag driving will not bother you lot. Power cuts make life inefficient but you will soon be ok with planned outages. Other thing that bothers is prices, India has become very expensive, in 2 years prices of petrol, groceries, food, travel, clothing and entertainment have shot up and in some cases even doubled up.

In short - moving back to India is about your will and your desire and your need. All other things will fall into place sooner than you thought of.

What SLR should I buy?

My friend asked me what would be a good SLR buy. Here is my quick review

I own Nikon 40D
and 18-55 and 55-200 and 50mm lenses.
I wish I had 18-300mm lens because most of our daily life nice photography can have good effects with it.


Before buying remember these
- SLR is bulky - so buy least size possible
- changing lenses to take nice shot - really tough - you will slowly adjust to use same lens
- so buy a camera where one lens can do most job
- Lenses are the key to the model you want to buy
- Real Canon/Nikon lenses can be expensive...there are other companies which provide lenses for Canon/Nikon camera..check them out too
- I prefer to buy SLR which has an affordable lens in range of 18-300 aperture
- Ex: Sigma 28-300 (one lens can help you take any kind of pic) 445$ or so http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses_all_details.asp?id=3305&navigator=2


Best cameras
- Nikon 60D (Read reviews at http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/index.htm)
- Canon Rebel XTI (reviews at http://www.dpreview.com/)


bottom line...do bit of research..my knowledge is based on technology of 4 yrs old...things have changed..prices have changed...