After completing his PhD in Canada, Microsoft Research India postdoctoral researcher Nandan Thakur chose to return to India, saying the decision was shaped by family, a desire for a stronger sense of belonging and the country’s rapidly growing artificial intelligence ecosystem. A Microsoft postdoctoral researcher has shared the personal and professional considerations that led him to return to India after completing his PhD in Canada, offering a different perspective on the decision to move back home after establishing a life abroad. Nandan Thakur, a graduate of BITS Pilani who completed his PhD at the University of Waterloo, Canada, recently detailed his experience in a long post on X titled “Why am I returning to India after my PhD?” According to Thakur, his decision was not prompted by dissatisfaction with Canada or a single negative experience. Instead, it emerged gradually from several factors that became increasingly important to him and his wife, Esha Saha, as they thought about their long-term future. Thakur acknowledged that returning to India after becoming settled in Canada was a difficult choice. Canada offered attractive professional opportunities, higher salaries and a relatively accessible route towards permanent residency and citizenship. Yet, he said, these advantages did not automatically mean that remaining abroad was the right choice for him. He described his years in Canada as largely positive, particularly his PhD experience. He also met his wife during his studies, making his time there personally significant.
However, over time, a number of smaller concerns began influencing his thinking. Rather than being driven by one major reason, Thakur said his decision was the result of several factors that were closely connected to the kind of life he and his wife wanted to build. One of the challenges he experienced while living in Edmonton, Alberta, was loneliness. The city’s long and harsh winters, combined with periods of remote work, sometimes made the distance from home more noticeable. Thakur said he missed several aspects of life in India, including Indian food, regular interactions with friends and family, and the ability to participate in important social occasions. Living thousands of kilometres away also made attending weddings and family events difficult.
Travel between Canada and India could be expensive and time-consuming, meaning that he sometimes had to miss occasions that would have been easier to attend had he been living in India. For Thakur, these seemingly ordinary aspects of life eventually became important considerations in deciding where he wanted to spend the next phase of his life. Thakur also discussed the less visible pressures that can accompany life as an immigrant. Visa requirements, immigration paperwork and employment-related changes can create uncertainty, particularly when a person’s ability to remain in a country is connected to their immigration status or employment. He said he observed friends dealing with considerable stress over visas and immigration procedures. A job change, delayed paperwork or difficulty securing a visa appointment could suddenly become a major source of anxiety.
Although Thakur had a positive experience in Canada, he said he never developed a complete sense of belonging there. For him, this was not necessarily a criticism of Canada but an acknowledgement of how difficult it can be to feel fully rooted in a country after moving abroad. Thakur also challenged the idea that remaining abroad is automatically considered a measure of professional success.
He and his wife had initially moved to Canada with a clear purpose: to pursue their PhDs. Once that goal was achieved, they began reassessing their priorities and discussing what they wanted their lives to look like beyond their academic journey. In that context, returning to India was not a fallback option.
Instead, it was a conscious decision based on their personal priorities and long-term aspirations. He noted that every country comes with its own advantages and compromises. The decision to live in one place over another ultimately depends on which trade-offs an individual is willing to make. Professional opportunities in India also played a significant role in Thakur’s decision. He pointed to the rapid expansion of India’s artificial intelligence and research ecosystem, including the growth of AI research groups at leading institutions such as IITs, IISc and BITS. At the same time, the presence of global technology companies and research organisations, including Microsoft Research, Google DeepMind and IBM, has created new opportunities for researchers working in AI and related fields. Thakur believes India’s evolving research environment provides an opportunity for professionals who have gained experience abroad to contribute to the country’s growing technology ecosystem. “It’s a good time to hopefully bring my experience back into the evolving Indian AI ecosystem,” he said.
After returning to India, Thakur joined Microsoft Research India in Bengaluru as a postdoctoral researcher. The transition, however, has not been entirely seamless. Having spent several years abroad, he said returning home has brought its own form of culture shock. Bengaluru’s traffic and excessive honking have been among the frustrations. At the same time, familiar experiences such as the city’s filter coffee have offered a reminder of the everyday comforts he had missed while living abroad. The contrast reflects the broader reality of returning home after several years overseas: some aspects of life can feel unexpectedly difficult, while others feel deeply familiar.
Ultimately, Thakur said the decision to return was closely connected to conversations with his wife about their future. After spending time in Germany and Canada, he said he had come to understand that every place requires people to make different trade-offs. For him and his wife, being closer to friends and family carried significant value. The ability to communicate more naturally in Hindi, participate more closely in family and social life, contribute to India’s growing AI ecosystem and develop a stronger sense of belonging all became important factors. Thakur concluded that these considerations made the decision to return to India relatively straightforward once he and his wife had clarified what they wanted from the next chapter of their lives. His experience highlights a broader point about migration and career choices: professional success and financial opportunities are only part of the equation. For some highly skilled Indians who build careers abroad, the pull of family, community, cultural familiarity and the opportunity to contribute to India’s expanding technology sector can eventually outweigh the advantages of staying overseas. For Thakur, returning to India was therefore not about giving up on life abroad. It was about choosing a different set of priorities—and building a future closer to the people, culture and professional ecosystem he values.