u/LandscapeReady

I (25F) grew up in urban India, middle class. I recently graduated from a relatively old IIM and have a good (on paper) job lined up in India. I was also lucky enough to experience the exchange semester during my MBA in a good university in Europe. During my exchange term, I simply fell in love with the lifestyle abroad — better infrastructure, better services, work-life balance, air quality, safety (especially as a woman), accessible public transport. I would love to actually build a life and family in such a place, compared to India. I'm actively looking for jobs there, but no luck yet since my exchange program was a non-degree exchange and I have only 2 Indian degrees (MBA and BTech; both from reputed colleges, but in India).

Now I'm having major regret. Here's why.
3 years back, once I was sure I wanted to go to grad school, I had a huge fight with my dad because he recommended that I go abroad for grad school, but he said I must come back to India for work. That sounded absolutely absurd to me. The math didn't make sense — spending in $ or € to earn in rupees. For context, I come from a family where education is seen as a status symbol, instead of a tool to enable a better life. And to clarify, we're definitely not rich. My dad was ready to spend his life savings on my education abroad. I argued that if I were to anyways live in India, I can study in India itself. And at that time, I didn't know that life abroad would be so wonderful since I've been in India all my life. Finally since my mum was also leaning towards studying in India, I went ahead and prepared for CAT, based on which I got into IIM.

My pre-MBA work experience and some incidents during my MBA also showed me that you need 'connections' if you want to operate in this country. Following rules is penalised, and merit is seldom awarded. I'm not saying that such culture absolutely doesn't exist abroad, but for the average person, life is better. You are rewarded for being a law-abiding citizen.

I feel if I had just taken my dad's offer 3 years ago, I'd have been in a much better place now, and would be the perfect launchpad for my career abroad. Anyways, what's done is done. Realistically, what can I do now to acheive my new found dreams?

Also, as an NRI, would you say that my assessment of the situation is correct, or is there some crazy drawback that I'm not taking into account (apart from the obvious visa anxiety and being away from parents)?

With the recent rise of Bhavitha Mandava, as a fellow brown-skinned Indian woman, I've been feeling really happy seeing brown representation on the runway.

This is not to say that there haven't been brown models before, but as someone in a similar age-group as her, it is really heartwarming to see someone from a similar race being lauded internationally as a beautiful person. I've been in India all my life and have been called 'ugly' and 'brown' interchangeably as if they were synonyms by women of my own family! And I've also heard firsthand from countless other Indian girls and women who've experienced a similar plight.

Which leads me to think, if anyone had ever said something like that to her (Bhavitha), her recent rise to fame would've been a huge slap on their faces!

Off late I've been having this inkling that the word origins of 'cricket' (as in the insect), and 'creek' have to be somehow related. Or remotely at least. I haven't found any evidence for this on the internet, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask away here.
Apart from the fact that creeks could be inhabited by crickets, I cannot find any other evidence of how they could be related. Is it just me or does anyone else also feel there might be a deeper connection here?

Joined this sub because I grew up outside TN and wasn't exposed to any tamil spoken outside of my house. The only tamil I speak is brahmin tamil at home. And have all these uniquely tambrahm habits that nobody else in my circles understands. But almost every third post on this sub is just matrimonial/dating ad! Guess I came to the wrong place to look for relatable people.