This is the season when Americans of Indian origin wing back home for their summer break. Previously, that annual pilgrimage typically consisted of returning with a jumble-bag of gifts, distributing it amongst an assortment of relatives while complaining about the filth, the dug-up roads or the airport, and then departing a couple of weeks later with a bagful of karela chips and a Prestige pressure cooker.

Not anymore. Mahidhar Reddy, an entrepreneur who set up a back office services firm and took it public, shifted to the United States nine years ago. He has been back every summer since then, and several times in between. Maryland-resident Reddy and other short-term returnees like him are astounded at the changes in Bangalore. In the old days, the difference between those living in India and those residing in the West was huge, whether in terms of lifestyle or access to material goods. Returnees were obligated to carry back electronics, brand-name clothes and other junk.

That’s all changed. Upper middle-class India has levelled with the returnees on more planes than one. These days, says Reddy, gifts like cell phones and PDAs are met with yawns. Whether in Bangalore or Baltimore, materially and technologically there is a sense that the gaps have closed. Everybody is outfitted with the latest cool gear and gadgets, notices Reddy. “This was brought home when a friend whipped out his iPhone and zoomed in with Google maps to show me a view of his new home,” he said. Returnees perceive a changed attitude towards them as well. There is no longer the awe-and-envy greeting that many have been accustomed to. “There was a time when returnees like me would be treated like rock stars when we came back home, now we are treated like rocks,” says Vivek Wadhwa, an entrepreneur-turned-researcher now associated with Harvard and Duke Universities.

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