Punit Soni, an Indian who spent a decade in Silicon Valley, describes his challenging transition back to Bengaluru in 2015 as Flipkart's chief product officer. Despite being native to India, his experiences in the U.S. impacted his cultural identity, making him feel like an outsider both at home and abroad. Soni chose a gated community in Bengaluru to aid his family's transition, reflecting on the blend of familiar expatriate culture and the vibrant local tech scene that made adjusting to life in India both easier and complex.
In many ways, I embodied the classic immigrant experience of feeling like an outsider in both my homeland and adopted country.
Despite being born in India, my years in the United States and Silicon Valley fundamentally altered my professional and cultural identity.
Moving to Bengaluru in 2015, I started my new position at Flipkart and had no set timeline of how long I would be back in India.
Living in a tropical replica of Silicon Valley made our adaptation easier, providing a familiar environment for our family's social integration.
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