Companies like IBM Corp., Dell Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp. have large offices here and are expanding their Bangalore work forces to tap into India's huge pool of well-trained, relatively inexpensive engineers and other professionals.

Older American expatriates have been coming to India for years to manage subsidiaries or train Indian employees. But now younger Americans are coming to take jobs at India's leading private firms or multinationals expanding their India operations.

"Indian corporates also gain from such professionals working with them, gaining knowledge of the cross-cultural nuances of managing a global work force," said Nasscom's Deepakshi Jha.

With its manicured lawns, food courts, gyms and cutting-edge architecture, the Infosys campus in Bangalore is an oasis of modernity in a city where the streets are jammed with buses, motorbikes, rickshaws, horse-drawn carts and herds of cows and goats.

Once they step off their corporate campuses, however, Americans must contend with the hassles of daily life in India, from haggling with rickshaw drivers to confronting scenes of grinding poverty.

"It's emotionally exhausting," said John S. Anderson, 29, a Stanford business school student who returned from India last summer after a year in Bombay helping eBay Inc. integrate employees at a newly acquired Indian firm.

"The poverty that you see at such an in-your-face level, and so much of it, gets really tiring," Anderson said. "You get up and drive to work in the morning, and every day four little girls come up to you and beg for money."

Another complaint is the seemingly endless workday here. Because of the time difference, employees often must work late at night or early in the morning to talk with colleagues or customers in the United States and Europe.

Still, Anderson and others say the chance to live, work and travel in such a dynamic society outweighed the troubles.

"All I knew about outsourcing in India was call centers," Anderson said. "What you find out when you go there is that there are just a ton of brilliant people with a strong entrepreneurial spirit."

Americans generally accept lower salaries to work in India, but their money goes a lot further, allowing them to dine at high-end restaurants, dance at the trendiest clubs and travel extensively within the country.

American software engineer Anna Libkhen, 31, took a big pay cut — she now earns about one-fourth her salary in New York City — when she transferred to Bangalore for Thomas Financial in October 2004.

But the chance to immerse herself in Indian culture is priceless.