I spent 7 years in the United States. Master's in Computer Science from Cal State Fullerton. Worked as a software engineer in Texas. Had the H-1B, the apartment, the American routine.
On paper, I was living the dream. In practice, I was living someone else's dream.
The California Years
I landed in Fullerton, California, in 2018. Orange County. Sunny, expensive, beautiful. Cal State Fullerton's CS program was solid — good professors, diverse classmates, and close enough to LA's tech scene to feel the energy.
Those two years shaped me more than I expected. Not just technically — I learned how Americans think about products, marketing, and user experience. I absorbed design thinking from being surrounded by it. Apple Park was a 6-hour drive north. Every other person was building an app or a startup.
I didn't start a company in college, but I started thinking like someone who would.
The Texas Detour
After graduation, I moved to Texas for work. Lower cost of living, no state income tax, growing tech scene. It was practical. And it was fine.
But "fine" is a dangerous word. Fine means comfortable. Fine means you stop questioning whether this is what you actually want. I was writing code for someone else's product, attending someone else's standup meetings, hitting someone else's deadlines.
I was good at it. Got promoted. Got raises. Built features used by millions. And every Sunday night, I felt a quiet dread that I couldn't quite name.
The Breaking Point
There wasn't a dramatic moment. No fight with a boss, no layoff, no epiphany on a mountaintop. It was more like a slow realization:
I was building wealth for other people while my own ideas sat in a Notes app.
I had a list — literally a list on my phone — of products I wanted to build. Privacy-first expense tracker. Legal doc generator. Invoice tool. The list kept growing, and my free time kept shrinking.
The math was simple: I could stay in the US, keep earning a good salary, and build side projects in the evenings. Or I could go back to India, where my expenses would drop by 70%, and go all-in.
Coming Home
Ahmedabad in 2025 is not the Ahmedabad I left. The city has changed. India's tech scene has exploded. And my perspective — shaped by 7 years in the US — suddenly became an advantage instead of a normal thing everyone had.
I understood American users because I lived among them. I understood Indian economics because I grew up in them. I could build products for a global audience from a city where my rent is a tenth of what I paid in Texas.
The first month was an adjustment. Slower internet. Power cuts (rare, but they exist). Missing the convenience of Amazon Prime delivering everything in a day. But also: family dinners every night. Chai with my parents every morning. Friends I'd known since childhood.
I traded convenience for meaning, and I'd make that trade again every time.
The Numbers
Let me be transparent about why India works for indie development:
In Texas, my monthly burn rate was around $3,000-4,000 (rent, food, car, insurance, everything). That's $36,000-48,000 per year just to survive.
In Ahmedabad, it's about $500-800 per month. That's $6,000-10,000 per year.
This means:
- •Runway multiplied by 4-5x. I can survive without revenue for years, not months.
- •Pricing flexibility. I can offer free tiers without panicking about server costs.
- •Risk tolerance. I can experiment with products that might not work.
What I'd Tell Others
If you're an Indian developer in the US, thinking about moving back:
- •Do it for the right reason. Not because the US is bad, but because India gives you specific advantages for what you want to do.
- •Save first. Have at least 12 months of runway before you make the jump. 18 is better.
- •Build your US network before leaving. Those connections are more valuable from India than from the US.
- •Don't compare daily. India will frustrate you sometimes. The US will seem perfect in hindsight. Neither is true.
- •Ship something in the first 90 days. Momentum matters more than perfection when you're starting fresh.
One Year Later
As I write this, I have 6 products live, 2.5K+ downloads on CashLens, a 4.8-star rating, and a team of AI agents running my marketing. I work from my room, on my schedule, building things I believe in.
Is it harder than a tech job? In some ways, yes. There's no guaranteed paycheck. No health insurance from an employer. No team to fall back on.
But I wake up excited. Every day is mine. And that Notes app list? It's empty now.
I didn't come home because the American dream failed me. I came home because I found a better dream.