I guess I have gone through the same India bashing and Canada bashing in my head several times in the past. But, one thing that I now realize is that no place is perfect.

I was born in India, worked in the US for more than 8 years and moved back to work in India. I earned a great salary in India; however decided to move to Canada. It was great being close to family and our culture. But, as I lived there, one thing I realized was that infrastructure and resources like water, electricity etc which were already stretched won't be able to match up to the rising demand (this was 5 years back). Go to any major city now and you will see that happening. Unless there is a sea change in policies, this is not going to change and going to worsen

Real estate: an apartment (flat) in a major city can set you back by Rs 1 crore 240,000 CAD). That's an EMI of close to 1 lakh[2000 CAD] (if you finance the entire amount). Expenses are skyrocketing in India; look at the food prices !

The electricity and water woes still haunt you. And you have to pay more to get uninterrupted electricity (read generators, inverters) or pay extra for tankers. And furthermore, you cannot do anything about the traffic situation. Traffic just crawls everywhere. So you plush 12 lakh Toyota Camry won't get you anywhere.

Fast forward 5 years, I still miss my family in India, but don't regret my decision to come here. I don't like the healthcare system, taxes are too high and opportunities limited in Canada. I don't like cooking, cleaning and doing household chores all the time. However, one thing that I get here and appreciate is much better quality of life. for example, I couldn't even imaging taking my kids to a neighborhood park in India; driving in the evening would take more than 1 hour, I can do that here. In fact, I can do that every evening. And for me, that makes it worthwhile to be in Canada.

Before complaining about our own motherland INDIA, we Indian abroad should always remember that we are expats abroad and if we are thrown out from any country, we don't have choice than to return to our own country however bad or good maybe our country. Those who don't love their own motherland can't love other countries. If you cannot be patriotic to your own country then you cannot be patriotic to any country.

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The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Mahatma Gandhi

The "WHICH-IS-BETTER-INDIA-OR-CANADA" debate can go on forever, with no clear winners. Infrastructure wise, Canada does fare better than India, but for someone who has the heart in India, there is no better place than home.

One size DOES NOT fit all, and that said, what I write will not apply to those who are used to sprawling cities, and to those who can never relocate from a city to the countryside. For some time now, I have been doing some homework about what life in rural India would be like - when I mean rural India, I do not mean like the "middle of nowhere" - I simply mean a smaller town, within 40-50 miles of a major city.

I haven't been to India in a long time, and have been told that life in the smaller cities has improved - there is better access to communication, health care and the outside world. Now what I say is not absolute - I hear this a lot about towns in Tamilnadu and Kerala.

I am not sure, but maybe that would be an ideal escape for retirement living. I'll have more to say on this forum after a brief visit to the country side in India, shortly.