Despite the chaos, India is the place to be
The first thing that hits you when you get back to India is the searing, unbearable heat — 40 degrees Celsius in the dead of the night! And you are promptly told that this is still better and that it is the hottest summer in 100 years when Delhi touched 48 degrees, will continue to combust and that rains are after all a figment of your wishful thinking.
The next thing that nixes you even more is a driver who is honking as if Earth is coming to an end. Nothing and no-one can tell him why he should not be doing so. Coming from the West Indies where it is the other extreme (they will stand in a row of cars for donkey’s years and never ever overtake or honk), this is quite something that unsettles you — even if you have been away from the rough and tumble of India for just about a month.
Talking of India and things Indian, (even though it is the best thing in life to be back in your mother country and home etc), the unnerving thing is the incorrigible habits that Indians carry all around our nation.
The most surprising thing that you notice outside is that these same Indians turn into very law obedient, civic conscious human beings when they go outside India.
So, you will see Indians first, not rushing across if the pedestrian light is red and then, smiling at everyone around them, which is quite a foreign trait otherwise. They do not ever honk or overtake or not adhere to the speed limit. But once back — for work or holiday in India — they become like men and women quite not in control. They scream, shout, laugh loudly, sometimes not even flush the toilet! Ask them why this is so and they do have an explanation.
As one diabetes specialist all the way from Atlanta said while on the plane to India: “All this is because we follow all restrictions and guidelines in our adopted country as we know there are no contacts, no clout and no amount of bribe that will work there. Here, we just let go because naturally we are chaotic people and what do we do this DNA of ours? After all we also need to relax and be ourselves and the only place we can be so is back in India where everything chalta hai.”
Actually, he does have a point. It was really quite a relief to finally arrive at the check-in counter of a flight going to India. Besides it being totally noisy, full and low on etiquettes (the guy next to me threw my luggage into another row of chairs as I was checking in and it took quite some time for me to find it). But strangely it was like coming home in Chicago itself. You may not agree with me, but you do heave a sigh of relief, telling yourself “OK, here I am on a more familiar territory.”
With foreigners for most part of my journey (not many from India reach the West Indies after a 30-hour flight and three time zones, not to mention the harrowing costs), I realised how ‘to themselves’ they actually are. No one, quite unlike us nosy souls, will ever ask you a question. They will smile at you but that’s the end of any interaction you will have with them unless you make a beginning. In a way, this super-human self-containment is a different kind of relief but it gets to you and you do understand then why loneliness is such a big doctoral business all over the West.
In West Indies itself, if you would venture into the residential side of the island, you will see almost every house lining the road having one woman or man sitting all alone in the balcony. Probe further and you will find the person is actually alone and has lived most of his/her life like this. Quite a bothering situation back in India where you are almost always never left alone and sometimes you even indulge in “give me space” demands!
It is this chain of human segregation that makes our PIOs and NRIs such a noisy, talkative lot. The student returning from her post-doctoral studies, could not keep quite even for one minute — from Delhi’s messy traffic to Delhi’s people to Delhi’s ill fate — she had everything to talk about. “That’s why I can’t live in India. They cannot do anything that is in line and in order. It is stressful to even get a telephone in your house,” she said, talking about the corruption that plagues Indians at large.
Well, this is India — and I am not complaining. The other side of the world is too cosmetic, too individualistic, too aggressive and too orderly to fit into. India, I would say, spoils you for life — not just with all the luxuries it gives you but also with the quality of life you get here if you are educated and in a good job.
Back in the US, even the most arrived and highly paid doctor is doing his own cleaning, his own garbage, his own grocery and his own maintenance!
Source: Sunday Pioneer, May 23, 2010
The next thing that nixes you even more is a driver who is honking as if Earth is coming to an end. Nothing and no-one can tell him why he should not be doing so. Coming from the West Indies where it is the other extreme (they will stand in a row of cars for donkey’s years and never ever overtake or honk), this is quite something that unsettles you — even if you have been away from the rough and tumble of India for just about a month.
Talking of India and things Indian, (even though it is the best thing in life to be back in your mother country and home etc), the unnerving thing is the incorrigible habits that Indians carry all around our nation.
The most surprising thing that you notice outside is that these same Indians turn into very law obedient, civic conscious human beings when they go outside India.
So, you will see Indians first, not rushing across if the pedestrian light is red and then, smiling at everyone around them, which is quite a foreign trait otherwise. They do not ever honk or overtake or not adhere to the speed limit. But once back — for work or holiday in India — they become like men and women quite not in control. They scream, shout, laugh loudly, sometimes not even flush the toilet! Ask them why this is so and they do have an explanation.
As one diabetes specialist all the way from Atlanta said while on the plane to India: “All this is because we follow all restrictions and guidelines in our adopted country as we know there are no contacts, no clout and no amount of bribe that will work there. Here, we just let go because naturally we are chaotic people and what do we do this DNA of ours? After all we also need to relax and be ourselves and the only place we can be so is back in India where everything chalta hai.”
Actually, he does have a point. It was really quite a relief to finally arrive at the check-in counter of a flight going to India. Besides it being totally noisy, full and low on etiquettes (the guy next to me threw my luggage into another row of chairs as I was checking in and it took quite some time for me to find it). But strangely it was like coming home in Chicago itself. You may not agree with me, but you do heave a sigh of relief, telling yourself “OK, here I am on a more familiar territory.”
With foreigners for most part of my journey (not many from India reach the West Indies after a 30-hour flight and three time zones, not to mention the harrowing costs), I realised how ‘to themselves’ they actually are. No one, quite unlike us nosy souls, will ever ask you a question. They will smile at you but that’s the end of any interaction you will have with them unless you make a beginning. In a way, this super-human self-containment is a different kind of relief but it gets to you and you do understand then why loneliness is such a big doctoral business all over the West.
In West Indies itself, if you would venture into the residential side of the island, you will see almost every house lining the road having one woman or man sitting all alone in the balcony. Probe further and you will find the person is actually alone and has lived most of his/her life like this. Quite a bothering situation back in India where you are almost always never left alone and sometimes you even indulge in “give me space” demands!
It is this chain of human segregation that makes our PIOs and NRIs such a noisy, talkative lot. The student returning from her post-doctoral studies, could not keep quite even for one minute — from Delhi’s messy traffic to Delhi’s people to Delhi’s ill fate — she had everything to talk about. “That’s why I can’t live in India. They cannot do anything that is in line and in order. It is stressful to even get a telephone in your house,” she said, talking about the corruption that plagues Indians at large.
Well, this is India — and I am not complaining. The other side of the world is too cosmetic, too individualistic, too aggressive and too orderly to fit into. India, I would say, spoils you for life — not just with all the luxuries it gives you but also with the quality of life you get here if you are educated and in a good job.
Back in the US, even the most arrived and highly paid doctor is doing his own cleaning, his own garbage, his own grocery and his own maintenance!
Source: Sunday Pioneer, May 23, 2010
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