Bridging the Gap

A common complaint amongst most NRIs is that while there is an opportunity of a better life abroad, the distance with their roots is a huge sacrifice they make. Everyone wants the best of both worlds and the NRI is no different.

While they indulge themselves culturally, wherever they are in the world, the feeling is never really the same as back home. The Internet has helped bridge this gap in a big way. Apart from the basic chat & emails, the advent of Skype & Gtalk, you can actually see what's happening back home real time, giving a completely unique experience.

But, these means can only go as far as reducing the communication gap. It does not reduce the NRI's responsibility in any way. A perfect example of this is Sriroop Dutta. With his folks back home in Kolkata, Sriroop had the constant guilt pangs of not being able to do enough for them. And his fears were not unfounded. He learnt it the hard way when his mom had to file a claim for her medical policy; he realized that he had forgotten to pay the premium.

The premium amount was hardly an issue. But juggling his local bills & keeping track of bills back home was indeed a challenge. He invariably missed out on several occasions and learnt the lessons the hard way. Fortunately, he didn't have to look very far for a solution.

Having used Remit2India to send money back home, Sriroop chanced upon a new service of theirs called BillPay2India. BillPay2India was an online bill manager specifically designed for NRIs. Sitting anywhere in the world, they could keep track & pay any bill in India using the Internet. He got regular updates when his bill was due and the best part was that he could choose the exact rupee amount that he had to pay and was not dependent on the vagaries of the exchange rate.

Now, Sriroop is a relieved man. Though there are still the same physical limitations, he feels that the distance between him and his parents has just got a little closer. Thanks to BillPay2India - Remit2India's online bill manager.

Building the dream home

America, so long renowned as the land of opportunity. Over the years, thousands of starry-eyed youngsters have migrated from their homeland in search of the American Dream.

While not every one of them manages to make it big, there are some individuals who are living examples of how an opportunity, when properly used, can reap huge rewards. One such example is Prakash Murthy. Born in a well-to-do family in Bangalore, he could have settled for a cushy lifestyle joining his dad's business. But then, he was not the type to settle for less.

Prakash pursued his M.B.A in a leading university in Michigan and having inherited his Dad's entrepreneurial skill, he used his engineering background to launch a tech start-up in the Silicon Valley during the dotcom boom. Fortunately, Prakash's management skills helped him survive the bust and he emerged even stronger.

Over the years, as the Valley blossomed, so did Prakash's empire. His company was thriving and always a potential candidate for a big name buyout. He had also started a couple of parallel ventures to keep the entrepreneurial juices flowing. On the personal front, Prakash was the center of a lot of envious glares. A million dollar home in posh Menlo Park with a few sleek sets of wheels reflected the progress he had made.

Even with all this, Prakash never forgot home. He used to regularly contribute to his alma mater in Bangalore and was a mini celebrity for a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs.

What Prakash also realized over the years was that America was not the land of opportunity. In fact, there was so much action happening back home that it was fast outpacing the opportunities in the U.S. And the go-getter that he was, Prakash sure wanted a share of this pie, too. Real estate was the most logical decision but distance was the most obvious constraint.

Sitting miles away, Prakash had little information of new projects, developing localities, developer reputation etc. Plus the fact that if he did buy a property, how would he send such a huge amount back home.

Help arrived, from an unexpected quarter. Prakash used to send money through Remit2India over the last 4 years. Having got accustomed to the comfort of the online medium, he was assigned a Relationship Manager as part of the Elite Program at Remit2India. When Prakash spoke about his predicament, he was pleasantly surprised that not only did Remit2India help him identify a good opportunity, it helped him with all the paperwork and most importantly, sending money in one go. Something, which even his bank, couldn't help him with.

And the icing on the cake was that he got a preferential rate too. So, even before buying the property, he could already see his money appreciating.

Prakash's take is simple. Invest in a relationship with the right partner and the results will show. For him, Remit2India was the perfect partner. And the results are there for all to see!!

A better remittance experience

Over the last decade, India's intellectual capital has been one of its biggest exports. Every year, thousands of skilled engineers go abroad to ply their trade either on deputation from Indian software biggies or working with the biggest names in Silicon Valley after completing their Masters.

Either ways, the American economy had fulfilled the aspirations of hundreds of such engineers from even the smaller towns in India. Something they wouldn't probably have dreamt of had they stayed on.

One such wide-eyed boy was Suryam. A telecommunication engineer from a relatively unknown college in Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Suryam had the difficult predicament of settling for a small time job in Hyderabad or pursuing a higher degree overseas, which would be his ticket to a good life. Suryam never lacked the ambition but with limited resources, he had to take a few risks. And that's exactly what he did. Taking a huge loan on his dad's ancestral property, Suryam applied and got through to a Masters course in a reputed University in Colorado, U.S.

After excelling in his course, he landed a plum posting with one of the biggest software companies in its sprawling campus near Seattle, Washington. With the feeling of having achieved something most people don't even dare to dream of, Suryam was on top of the world.

The family man that he was, the first thing he did after starting to earn is to send money back to his parents in Vizag. His dad banked with a nationalized bank and he was at a stage in life that the money from abroad was fast becoming more important than the meager pension he was drawing. Every month, Suryam used to send a cheque to his dad and within 'just' 3-4 weeks, the money would be credited to his dad's account. The process was painful. The wait was agonizing but his dad had no option. The guilt of having to depend on his son was already killing him so a few weeks of waiting was something he had learned to live with.

However, the biggest irony about Suryam was that he was in a team responsible for creating the very tool that makes the Internet work. He knew all the complex codes & scripts that actually helped millions across the world browse the Web. But when it came to sending money back home, he opted for a route that was completely 'offline'. It’s not that he didn't care about the problems his dad faced while receiving the money. It was just probably inertia that kept him stuck to a process that was as age old as the manual typewriter in an era of tablets & smart phones!! Until one incident made him wake up. It was his dad's 60th birthday in a couple of weeks and if he sent money, he knew that it wouldn't reach 2 weeks after the occasion. The guilt of not being physically present plus the fact that he had overlooked the time to send the money made Suryam wake up from his stupor. There had to be a better way to do this in this day and age.

One thing good for Suryam was that there was a strong Indian presence in his work place. In fact, he had more colleagues from near his hometown than local Americans. These friends formed the support system and also helped him sort out his problem. Sukesh, a close friend and colleague, had gone through the same cycle. But he had heard of a service called Remit2India and having become a regular user of the service, he was at peace.

Sukesh suggested the same idea to Suryam and it didn't take long for an Internet junkie to get hooked on to an online service. Suryam chatted, banked, shopped, and watched TV on the Internet so this was a logical extension. Now, his transfers happen online and the money reaches in 4 days flat. No tension. No inconvenience. No worrying about the exchange rate. No missing occasions. Life was indeed simpler.

Now, a year after getting Suryam into the Remit2India fold, Sukesh still does not miss an opportunity to pull his best friend's leg. He says that he has saved Sukesh a lot of embarrassment. A guy who writes the best Internet code for millions and not using the Internet for his own needs is akin to sacrilege. Thankfully, Suryam is no longer in that category.