For many young Indians, moving to the United States feels like the ultimate life goal. A good degree, a high-paying job, clean cities, and global exposure, America often represents success. But for Gaurav, a tech professional from Lucknow, staying in the US began to feel more like a cage than a dream.
In a recent episode of the Desi Return podcast, he shared why coming back to India gave him something he hadn’t felt in years, that is freedom.
From India to the big American Dream
Gaurav was born and brought up in Lucknow in a humble household. Growing up with limited resources, he saw education as the only way forward. Like many kids, his idea of America came from movies, tall buildings, clean roads, fancy cars, and endless opportunities. Compared to his surroundings, it felt like heaven.
With no guarantees, he decided to try. He prepared for the SAT and IELTS, secured a scholarship along with an education loan, and moved to the US in 2014 through a dual-degree program, studying first in Manipal and then completing his degree in America. He later pursued electrical engineering in Wisconsin, one of the coldest regions in the country. Life was not easy, but he was determined to make it work.
Harsh reality check
Professionally, things started well. Gaurav landed a job as a battery engineer, but within nine months, he was laid off. What followed was a brutal phase, nearly 10,000 job applications and just two callbacks, from GE and Tesla. He cleared both interviews and chose Tesla, moving to Reno, Nevada, to work as an R&D engineer.
Later he realised, a job is not security. “If something like this happened again, I didn’t want to be crushed,” he said on the podcast. That fear pushed him to learn about personal finance, passive income, and wealth building. Through books, podcasts, and audiobooks, he began educating himself.
In 2020, he bought his first home and started house hacking—living in one room and renting out the others. This helped him cut expenses and save aggressively, slowly building a sense of control over his life.
Visa anxiety
Behind the career progress, personal life was falling apart. Gaurav lost his grandmother in 2018 and couldn’t return to India. Soon after, his mother was paralysed. Visa issues and then COVID made travel impossible. He was building a life in the US while emotionally and financially supporting his family back home.
These challenges pushed him to focus even more on cash flow and investments. He saved 20–30% of his income, invested in rental properties, joined learning communities, and explored different asset classes. He strongly believes that investing in learning always pays off, even when it feels uncomfortable.
By 2023, his immigration process finally moved forward, and after five years, he returned to India. Just two weeks later, his mother passed away at the age of 60. That moment changed everything. He began questioning what success really meant and what he was chasing all these years.
‘Coming back felt like freedom’
At that point, Gaurav had built strong assets but little liquid cash. The next logical step would have been to sell everything and continue pursuing a green card. But he chose differently. His father was still alive, and time with him felt more valuable than any visa status.
In 2025, once his visa ended, Gaurav returned to India for good. “Coming back felt like freedom. No visa anxiety. No fear of being uprooted overnight,” he told on Desi Return podcast. Back in Lucknow, he bought a new home and moved his family into a space they had never experienced before, a lifelong dream fulfilled.
He began informally helping people, especially immigrants, understand finances, real estate, and passive income. Over time, this grew into a community focused on helping people build cash flow so they can make life decisions from choice, not fear.
In just one year, he traveled to 11 cities with his father and caregiver, gave his father his first flight experience, attended weddings, festivals, and birthdays, and hosted potlucks at home. “This one year felt richer than the last five combined,” he explained on the podcast.
He admits he still misses parts of the US – speed, efficiency, structured systems, and easy access to credit. He also misses friends and professional exposure. But he believes every country has trade-offs. In India, he feels he can design his environment, choose his community, and build life on his own terms.
He also has an advice to the youngsters, think about what you truly need at this phase of life, not what society expects. “Clarity comes after action, not before. Everything is figure-out-able,” he explained on the podcast. For him, letting go of the American dream wasn’t a failure, it was the most freeing decision of his life.