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After 5 years in Europe, founder says returning to India felt suffocating: ‘It's hard to move back home’
After returning to India from Europe, Karan Punjabi experienced reverse culture shock, feeling out of place and lonely.
After living in Europe for five years, Karan Punjabi thought moving back to India would feel natural. Instead, nearly four years after returning, the Mumbai-based entrepreneur says he is “still not over it”.
In a candid Instagram post that has resonated with many Indians who moved back home after living abroad, Punjabi opened up about the emotional difficulty of “reverse culture shock” and feelings of loneliness.
“I spent 4 years in France, did my master’s in Barcelona, and moved back to Mumbai almost 4 years ago. And I’m just now able to talk about how hard it actually was,” he said in his Instagram post.
(Also read: ‘Sometimes comfort is not enough’: Bengaluru techie on returning to India after 6 years in Germany)
The internal struggle
“Nobody warns you about how hard it is to move back home,” he wrote in the opening slide of the post. Punjabi described how everyone around him seemed happy he had returned, while he alone struggled internally.
He honestly acknowledged that he expected things to be familiar when he returned to India. Instead, he was left battling feelings of irritation and restlessness.
“You expected comfort, familiarity, to slip right back in. Instead, everything feels... off. Out of place. You feel restless. Irritated by the smallest things. Lonely, even in a room full of your own people,” said Punjabi.
“Life didn’t wait for you. It went on,” he added, explaining how returning home felt disorienting because friends and family had moved on with new routines, relationships and experiences. “You return to a world that no longer waits, adjusts, or makes space,” he said.
Feeling out of place
The founder of B To D Studio also reflected on the loss of independence after moving back in with family. “Living alone shows you who you are. Coming back shows you how much you've changed,” he wrote.
(Also read: ‘Feel like I’m starting over’: Woman opens up on life in India 6 months after leaving the US)
He said one of the hardest feelings to explain was not feeling “better than anyone, just… different,” after years spent abroad.
“You've lived conversations, experiences, versions of yourself that the people back home never got to meet,” said the Mumbai-based entrepreneur.
In another slide, he described reverse culture shock as “real”, saying he had “rewired in ways no one here has seen.”
He spoke about feeling caught between two identities — the person he used to be in India and the person he became while living overseas. Punjabi also described grieving the end of a chapter of life he could never revisit. “The hardest part wasn’t being back. It was accepting I’d never live those years again,” he wrote.
The weight of routine
Karan Punjabi also opened up about what he called the “weight of routine” and how tiring it can get to refamiliarise yourself with life in India.
Where in Europe he explored new places and met new people, India had no such respite to offer. He acknowledged that what once felt comforting in India, began to feel suffocating instead.
“No new city to figure out. No strangers to become friends with. Just the familiar, on repeat. The same roads, the same conversations, the same days. And somehow, what once felt comforting now feels suffocating,” wrote Punjabi.
However, Punjabi said his perspective eventually shifted when he stopped asking himself “why am I back?” and instead began asking “what am I building now?” He wrote that the restlessness never fully disappeared, but slowly became a source of direction rather than frustration. “Maybe this phase isn’t about escaping again. Maybe it’s about building a life you don’t feel the need to run from,” he said.
