US and India

How truly impossible it is to fully grasp something until you've experienced it first-hand. When you look at US and India, there are two diametrically opposed camps of both the places in both the countries.

As the two countries integrate economically and politically, there is a lot more bi-lateral exchange of talent and knowledge that sounds the death knell of the "brain-drain" of skilled Indian workers to America.

There has been a sea change in the life style of the people too.

It was not so much before, when British left our country, than it is now.

Families:

Speaking of the Indian family, where there was once only strength and solidarity, I now see scores of unhappy homes, where public faces are proud and happy but private lives can be torture. Live alone Joint families, people are not interested in meeting even once in a year. It fills by heart with sorrow unspeakable.

Who said there are no family bonds in US? There are still some families who are very closely bonded. But since there are people from all over the world coming and settling there, leaving their families back home, you find single families too..

Wedding:

Indian weddings are presumed to be as the world’s most joyous, as epic celebrations to be remembered. But there are family politics, back-biting and bruised egos that come part and parcel with such grand occasions.

Of late, the courts in India have approved the status of Live in relationships..I was glad to here of my friend being ‘Practically Married’ in US, which was a difficult status in India, but there were people like Hema Malini who Practised it decades before.

Also recently I happen to attend a wedding, which was a mixture of two culture, and so was the custom, the food, the venue and everything.

So people are coming out of the conventional images, and adapting changes.

Till a decade before marriages were considered to be a holy bond, and only death would separate the couples, either because of the fear of the society, or not wanting to go back and trouble the parents. But then here too, now there is a trend towards divorces before marriage. Is Female empowerment the reason?

Shopping:

I was surprised to here that the old Sindhi man (I cannot recollect his name right now) is still running the grocery shop, which was in front of our apartments in Kalyan. In India, Shopkeepers are proud of their craft and their products; they know their own stores inside and out. They are open from dawn until midnight, and some of them seem to sleep in the shop themselves.

Moreover, there is a cultivation of trust and a development of friendship between customer and shopkeeper.

I was saddened to hear of Varkeys proposed plans of closure. It was one of the best supermarkets of kerala. Now that there are big industrialists opening retail chains like the Reliance, More, the traditional firms find it difficult to compete.
Super markets, like Wal-mart's, marks and spencers, stop and shop, would be attractive and handy, but they also represents so much of what is wrong with western culture. Worker turnover is astounding; a steady stream of dejected workers hands over recycled badges to eager-faced freshers dying to make a good impression. Once they've worked long enough to be eligible for benefits and a wage increase, they're inexplicably released.

Cuisine:

Indian food is something , that people miss when in west, thought there are Indian Restaurants. Dosas. How have they not made the leap to mainstream West? There you have variety Cornflakes for breakfast. Then there is the Idlis (the dosa’s mal-adjusted cousin both delicious breakfast food that originated in South India but has spread across the sub-continent, breaking down barriers and defying all odds. You can have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then there are the rotis (Indian breads). Dosas and Rotis can be of so much variety.

Spicy food, the taste of India, may not be easily available or like by the west. And then there is the eating habit. Eating with hands/spoke and spoon.

Mysticism of the Mango is marvelous. They're very heat inducing though, and seasonal.

Drinks: If it is tea or coffee the primary ones, and not beer. Beer is not that very popular drink among common men (women) though it is the world's oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic beverage and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea.

Are broken houses due to alcohol consumption by men more common in the east than the west?

Seasons:

The strangest thing about the monsoon in India is its utter unpredictability. It’s absurd. Within minutes, the blue skies turn a sickly green-grey, and the heavens open. Then there could be a shower or a drizzle. Otherwise, its summer and extreme summer.

Unlike west, we don’t get to see the simmering white snow fall, flowers and fruits blooming in the spring, light shower during the monsoon, and ha the beautiful fall colors just before the snow again….so lovely a site….


Film Industry:

Hollywood/Bollywood/Kollywood/Mollywood:

Hero worship, Tamilians deseparately want to worship some film star or the other. It was MGR yesterday, Rajni today, tomorrow ??

Richard Gere had kissed Shilpa Shetty during a promotional event designed to increase AIDS awareness, which created a huge fuss, but why?

It is completely fine for a shirtless man to grind up against a scantily clad female, both sweat-streaked and panting breathlessly. There are outrageous billboards, highly erotic dances performed by nearly nude heroines and and provocative television advertisements.

Films like Slumdog Millionaire portrays an older outlook of India which may not be correct today. But now we have films like Kites making international presence.

Cities:

India: Capital is Delhi, Commercial capital is Mumbai, and you have Chennai and Calcutta, and many more following suite…
America: Capital is Washington, commercial capital is New York and you have Chicago and California, and many more following suite…
Kerala: Capital is Trivandrum, commercial capital is Kochi and you have Calicut and many more following suite….


Drive:

In the states everyone is patient and courteous. There’s not honking, roads are good and the enforcement of the law is serious. Each driver has his/her own response time and imaginary distance to be kept between the next car.
In India, the main problem is population and number of vehicles on the road which makes it a huge exercise in logistics to manage. The roads are bad, and people not educated in the ways of traffic to know that the more orderly they are, the better and faster the ride will be. The unwritten law of the road is “FILL IN THE GAPS”. However, that keeps the driver always on alert ready to stop or swerve at any point.

YOGA & Meditation

India’s ’spiritualism, religiosity and mysticism’, is impressing, but age-old, baseless superstition is one among her greatest obstacles. We have got so many saints and swamis in every nook and corner of this country.

No doubt the create great many assets for the country (Like AIMS), but they bring a bad name too, by way of people like Nityananda Swami.


Politics:


The Indian Republic, has revealed rips and tears along class, language, regional, and religious lines.

And as one terror attack after other pounds Indian cities, it brings out the gaping holes in her governance.

Growing up in the States, it’s easy to forget there’s a world outside American borders. Living in an ancient, distinct, complex country like India, with its billion sons and daughters, serves as ample reminder.

With the world’s most neurotic neighbors — and in the face of staggering poverty, an extraordinarily diverse citizenry and threats of Maoist violence —India manages the largest democratic exercise humanity has ever seen. India’s ruling United Progressive Alliance government held onto its power peacefully, legitimately and transparently. While military and religious despots rule in much of the developing world, India has a scholar and a gentleman in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Today in India it seems as if nothing is impossible. Every day, millions of young Indians bear overcrowded train rides and other infrastructure deficiencies, only to arrive at exceedingly competitive jobs and schools. Still, they will not be deterred. It’s a generation that has shed the colonial and regional hang-ups of those before them. They’re just Indian, and proud of it.

I am reminded of the song: Jahan pyar mein payal haath mein ghungroo, aur mathe par bindhya, It happens only in India...


Large scale industrial negligence? There is India.
Dumping hazardous waste? There is India.
Invasion on the border? There is India.
A bomb blast here and there? Of course there is India.


What a strange and beautiful thing. Life…..


Courtesy: http://blogs.rediff.com/aaii/
An american In India... Matthew Schneeeberger!