What struck you about India?

Very good questions, Cheryl jī!

I've been here for over 2.5 years, and if I go back to the US, I would be bringing the entirety of India within my life back with me, complete with a border sign posted at the edge of a property, if I'm ever able to buy one before I leave this world, and constructing the inside appearance of an Indian home (concrete walls, RO machine, latch-style doors, one insulated-AC tiny-house-style building dedicated as a Hindū temple, complete with consecration of my Iṣṭa-devatā by a pūjārī, Indian clothes to be bought and worn for the rest of my life).

I was never really one completely at home with my demonic Western culture.  I always thought something was not right and rebelled against it.  It was the teachings of Hindū texts especially including the artha śāstra coming out of me unknowingly and being made fun of for it all my life.

My biggest surprise out of all this is that after decades of living at first as a Heathen under my father, then an athiest in my 20s, then agnostic in my 30s, being vegetarian for the last 27 years and vegan for 22 of these years, then "spiritual, but not religious" in my 40s, confirming that I am Hindū 6 years ago at age 49, and then feeling like I fit in here in India, that my DNA Forensics DNA report shows that I have over 8% Indian ancestry (most of it SE India and a sub-1% in northern India). 

It is no wonder that when I went to Lothal here in Gujarāt, I cried as I walked about, because either it was my home or I visited it extensively in the distant past, and I saw it in ruins in this lifetime.  "What happened?!" was the question on my mind and wondering who my family or friends were from that time period.  Regardless, I had come to feel that day that the saṃsāric cycle of death and rebirth was finally complete.  Even the trees, vegetation, the soil, and the people in Lothal are pretty similar to what I grew up with in South Texas.

I was groomed for all this.

Hi All I am planning to relocate to Mysuru in the next 5 years .  I am from South Africa .  Anyone from the  area (local or expats) I would like to hear your views:)

Hi Renereddy,

You have taken a right decisions, you will not find a place like Mysore. Than me telling you about mysore, google once the locations, its amazing.

Warm regards
Jayaram