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NRI blogger on how returning to India reshaped daily life
The blogger said watching her child grow up in India reinforced the importance of community over convenience.
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Malvika Choudhary - Wed, 24, Dec 2025
- 16:02 EST
- 12
Screengrab from the post / Instagram (reellifeofzeel)
A candid reflection by a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) blogger on returning to India from Canada and adjusting to a slower pace of daily life and stronger sense of community has sparked wide discussion on social media.
In an Instagram reel, Zeel Shah said the decision to move back was initially framed around logistical concerns such as addresses, schools, and routines but gradually led to a deeper internal shift.
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“I thought moving back to India would be about logistics. Addresses. Schools. Routines. I didn’t realize it would quietly rewire how I live,” she wrote.
Shah described how daily life in India prompted her to slow down and become more present. “Here, days don’t rush me. They arrive with noise, interruptions, conversations, and chai pauses. Life isn’t optimized but it’s felt,” she said, contrasting the experience with her life abroad.
She also reflected on reassessing ideas of success and self-worth shaped by a productivity-driven lifestyle. “I had to unlearn measuring my worth by productivity,” Shah wrote, adding that the move required letting go of control and accepting trade-offs. “Had to soften my grip on control. Had to accept that privacy shrinks, but support multiplies.”
While noting moments of difficulty, Shah said the presence of family and community offered a sense of shared living that she had missed earlier. “Some days I miss structure. Some days I crave silence. But I no longer feel like I’m doing life alone,” she wrote.
Shah said watching her child grow up in India reinforced the importance of community over convenience. “Belonging comes before independence, and community before convenience,” she noted, adding that the move, while not easier, felt more meaningful. “Moving back didn’t make life easier. It made it fuller, warmer, more human.”
The reel drew significant engagement, with several users sharing similar experiences in the comments. One user wrote, “This is the beauty of being in your own country. You are always taken care of.” Another commented, “Can totally relate to this after returning to India.”
Some users offered broader reflections on migration and belonging. “Everyone needs to find their place in the world, and clearly Canada isn’t for everyone,” one comment read, while another said, “You may take the Indian out of India, but not India out of the Indian.”
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