Author & Entrepreneur Soundarya Balasubramani’s India tour, Life in the USA: From People Who Cracked the Code, already held in Mumbai (Dec 13) and Hyderabad (Dec 14) arrives in Chennai (Dec 21), and Bangalore (Jan 4). The free, multi-city series creates an open space for honest conversations about ambition, migration, and the realities of building a life in America.
The conversations moved far beyond visa categories or application timelines. Soundarya and her co-speakers spoke about the emotional and professional realities of starting over in a new country: uncertainty, reinvention, loneliness, and the resilience required to find belonging thousands of miles from home. Many attendees shared that Soundarya’s talk shifted something within them — especially her message about not settling for “just a job,” but seeking a calling, designing one’s career with intention, and daring to aim higher. Drawing from her own immigration journey and her work supporting thousands of high-skilled immigrants, her stories revealed the trade-offs immigrants face and the long-term thinking required to thrive abroad.
“My favorite part of the tour was what happened after the talk,” Soundarya shared. “Again and again, students told me that the idea of not settling for a job — but seeking a calling — stayed with them. I see so many brilliant people doing work that no longer excites them, and their potential stalls. To watch twenty-one and twenty-two-year-olds suddenly imagine a bigger future for themselves… That was the most fulfilling part for me.”
