After 18 years in US, Meta executive returns to Bengaluru for family and ‘home’

After spending nearly two decades building his career in the US, a senior Meta executive has relocated to Bengaluru with his family, saying he did not want to miss out on precious years with his ageing parents and growing children.

Balaji Gururajan, an engineering leader at Meta and a former Microsoft and LinkedIn employee, shared a life-changing decision in a LinkedIn post that struck a chord with many who have wrestled with the question of whether to return to India after years abroad.

Gururajan also shared what appeared to be an airport photo showing a luggage trolley piled high with more than a dozen suitcases.

‘It still doesn’t feel entirely real’

An alumnus of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Tiruchirappalli, Gururajan spent years working at some of the world’s leading technology companies before deciding it was time to move back home.

Looking back on his years in the US, Gururajan said the move back is yet to sink in.

“It still doesn’t feel entirely real. The Bay gave me my career, my closest friendships, and a way of thinking about technology and leadership I will carry for the rest of my working life,” he wrote in his post.

“To everyone who took a chance on me, taught me something I needed to hear, or simply made the hard years easier — thank you,” he added.

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Rebuilding life

He said returning to Bengaluru has meant starting over in several ways, from finding a home and settling his children to navigating the day-to-day realities of a city he had last known much earlier in life.

“Settling in has been its own kind of project — school, home, the everyday logistics of starting over in a city I last knew as a much younger person,” he wrote, describing the experience as “humbling” and “more often than not, genuinely good.”

During the transition, Gururajan also built a new side project called Bhavitta, an application created entirely with Anthropic’s AI model Claude. The platform is aimed at people who manage finances across different countries and need to navigate multiple currencies, tax systems and long-term financial planning.

“It is for people navigating exactly this kind of cross-border financial life — planning a retirement or a return that spans two countries, two currencies, two tax systems,” he explained.

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Gururajan said he was feeling “grateful, a little jet-lagged, and glad to be here.”

‘Deep appreciation’

His post quickly attracted responses from others who had made similar life decisions.

“A truly inspiring and courageous decision. Careers and opportunities may come again, but precious time with ageing parents can never be regained. Deep appreciation for choosing family, responsibility and togetherness. Welcome home, and best wishes to the entire family!” one LinkedIn user wrote.

Another recalled making a similar international move years ago. “More than 10 years ago, we took a similar load of suitcases leaving Shanghai for New York – everyone and one load all at once. By comparison, the outbound move to Shanghai – 5 years earlier – took multiple visits and 3 separate moves to accommodate the mind, job, and school. A Claude smart tool is a wonderful idea – I hope it helps.”

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A third user summed up the emotional pull of returning home. “When one compares life after 50 in India vis a vis the world most will return back.. For the world you are somebody..but for somebody (family..parents) here you are the world. Ghar aaja pardesi Tera desh bulaye re… Wise decision mate.”