Monday, June 30, 2008
Culture Shock
This happened many many years ago, when we were just out of college. While me and Manoj were planning, contemplating, struggling, enjoying and altogether being adventurous in our marriage with a meagre income, in Kochi, our friends and batch mates were either landing up in cushy jobs or migrating to USA for higher education. So far so good. Now, when I met one of my friends for her wedding (she opted to get married, migrate and then study in promised land, wasnt that clever of her?)Well, after the priliminaries, we got into deeper gossips and then she spoke of a classmate who went to US of A for further studies, had come back to India and couldnt stand the life out here. She had a culture shock!! Oh my gosh!!! This was Deja Vu for me. My father had told me this one years back. His cousin brother, a very young man then, had been sent to Dubai by his uncles (includes my grandpa) following his father's death and as he had to take care of his mother and two sisters who were still studying in school. The boy was intelligent and hardworking and soon was working with a good firm and after few years, his mother found him a bride and the couple settled in Dubai. Now is the best part, he comes back to visit his mother and sisters but refuses to stay in the house he was born in!! The reason, the place is too hot and dusty. So every time he visits his mother, he stays in a hotel and moves about in air conditioned taxicab in good old Bangalore. Wow! Some culture shock!
Metrographics
It's hip and happening if:
1. It takes a couple of hours in rush hour through smog and honks to reach the destination which is just a few blocks away.
2. You have more shopping malls and pubs than a decent modest cafeteria.
3. You prefer to stay at home on weekends for a break.
4. You see a pickup truck loaded with stuff in your neighbourhood and you are not sure whether your next door neighbour is moving in or out.
5. You come back home after your honeymoon and the landlord 'informs' you of the newly revised rents. Well, you are fortunate if you find the house when you come back, most probably, the landlord would have already sold it to a builder to make way for a luxury apartment.
6. One morning, you are shocked to see your dignified and quiet neighbour being introduced on prime TV as a ruthless serial killer.
7. Your child demands license for weapon for self defense in school.
8. Your maid insists on you owning a washing machine, a dust buster and Tata Sky if you want her to stay.
9. At the metro station, you happen to hear an old hindi song and you see everybody checking their mobiles.
10. You've lost your car key and immediately think of dialing its number to find it.
11. The travel to the airport is costlier and lengthier than the air trip itself.
12. There is atleast one bomb blast twice a year and scores of hoax calls through the length and breadth of the city.
13. You have to walk through the metal detector to enter the toilet.
14. You have to pick and choose programmes in a kids channel.
15. You have difficulty in hearing sounds below 200 decibels (which is acceptable and advantageous for healthy living).
16. You have specialist vets and puppy food at a minutes walk from your home while the paediatrician is half hour away.
17. You and your spouse see each other only on weekends (if you live in the same city) or/and your child fails to recognise you in a crowd or vice versa.
18. You finally decide to own a vehicle even if you are scared stiff of the chaotic traffic as you are more scared of confronting the autorickshaw drivers and of taking a ride in the local bus.
19. Your daughter runs up to the TV and calls "Mamma!"
20. You feel disabled if your mobile turns off.
21. You prefer to own a dog rather than have a baby as the latter needs both you and your spouse's involvement, time and money.
22. Your dog's name is longer than yours.
23. You insist to use the lift even to reach the first floor.
1. It takes a couple of hours in rush hour through smog and honks to reach the destination which is just a few blocks away.
2. You have more shopping malls and pubs than a decent modest cafeteria.
3. You prefer to stay at home on weekends for a break.
4. You see a pickup truck loaded with stuff in your neighbourhood and you are not sure whether your next door neighbour is moving in or out.
5. You come back home after your honeymoon and the landlord 'informs' you of the newly revised rents. Well, you are fortunate if you find the house when you come back, most probably, the landlord would have already sold it to a builder to make way for a luxury apartment.
6. One morning, you are shocked to see your dignified and quiet neighbour being introduced on prime TV as a ruthless serial killer.
7. Your child demands license for weapon for self defense in school.
8. Your maid insists on you owning a washing machine, a dust buster and Tata Sky if you want her to stay.
9. At the metro station, you happen to hear an old hindi song and you see everybody checking their mobiles.
10. You've lost your car key and immediately think of dialing its number to find it.
11. The travel to the airport is costlier and lengthier than the air trip itself.
12. There is atleast one bomb blast twice a year and scores of hoax calls through the length and breadth of the city.
13. You have to walk through the metal detector to enter the toilet.
14. You have to pick and choose programmes in a kids channel.
15. You have difficulty in hearing sounds below 200 decibels (which is acceptable and advantageous for healthy living).
16. You have specialist vets and puppy food at a minutes walk from your home while the paediatrician is half hour away.
17. You and your spouse see each other only on weekends (if you live in the same city) or/and your child fails to recognise you in a crowd or vice versa.
18. You finally decide to own a vehicle even if you are scared stiff of the chaotic traffic as you are more scared of confronting the autorickshaw drivers and of taking a ride in the local bus.
19. Your daughter runs up to the TV and calls "Mamma!"
20. You feel disabled if your mobile turns off.
21. You prefer to own a dog rather than have a baby as the latter needs both you and your spouse's involvement, time and money.
22. Your dog's name is longer than yours.
23. You insist to use the lift even to reach the first floor.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
The Great Indian Rising
There was a man in our neighbourhood who used to spit paan (betel leaf and betel nut chewed after a meal, which turns your mouth red) in front of our porch every night. When morning came, we had an extra task of cleaning up our walls while feeling disgusted. No amount of pleas or threats worked in this case and the cold war continued till we moved out of that place for other reasons.
I love to travel by train as I enjoy watching our beautiful country's landscape unfolds through the window. Verdant fields, red earth, lakes, coastlines, hutments...But I hate to look out the window in the mornings especially near the stations as the railtracks serve the second purpose of being the lavatory for a majority in our country. Here the shy,coy wife/daughter, the sober father/son all sit, chat and watch the trains chugging along while they perform their morning duties nonchalantly.
The other day we were hurrying through a street, fortunately in a car (with the advantage of having a window to close) and were shocked (as usual) to see men turned to the walls, attending to nature's call. I would be only exagerrating in the negative If I have used the word shocked as this has become a usual scene through out our country. And I always thought women suffered fom urinary incontinence! Not only that, but men can stare at you at a bus stop or a shop, measure you up from top to bottom, even when you are well dressed (fully covered) but when women happen to pass a street with a man pissing round the corner, it is she who feels embarassed (and even scared that she might have seen too much) and looks elsewhere.
How can I ever forget our dear Indian brothers turning our nation into 'spitsville'?
BTW, did I call them brothers? (Un)fortunately I am reminded of the ever increasing number of rapes, assaults, and abuse unleashed on their 'sisters'. Children and grandmothers are not spared these days either. Is the media to be blamed for portraying perverted images and corrupting youngminds with warped ideas of sexuality? Or is it our own fault for lacking to provide a moral basis (though we often boast of it) to each generation in our haste to hoard wealth for them?
Every Indian city has a newface each day, with malls, multiplexes, boutiques, exclusive shops, joints, pubs springing up. Each screaming of better entertainment than the other. Fashion shows, music concerts, cricketmatches (this is the fusion of fashion, movies, music, cheerleaders and lastly and the least, sports), food festivals, raffles, inaugurations, movie campaigns and what not are held to mark the growth of a metro. Yet the bylanes still carry unattended rubbish heaps swarming with flies, street dogs take their nightly stroll in huge groups.
As evening darkens, the elite clink glasses of champagne and dance to techno music, men and women, some who came to work over a construction project (there is a mass exodus from villages to urban areas every year) for a measly sum and others who lost their land to the 'dream' project of someone else, huddle up with half empty stomachs under the flyovers and the unfinished patios of huge multiplexes, to get a goodnight's rest and dream of a better tomorrow...
We have super and multi speciality hospitals mushrooming everywhere and yet many do not adhere to basic medical requirements regarding hygeine of equipments and premises.
Inflation has hit the roof, an alltime high in 13 years, people have gone on a ricewater diet ( I am talking about the common man), farmers (the media likes to use the word 'ryot' rather than farmer as this sort of blinds our eyes as we feel that some 'ryot' has killed himself and not a farmer) still commit suicide, the number of jobless, homeless pushed to the street continue to increase, begging, prostituition, petty thefts increase... Elsewhere, an India-born industrialist purchases another billion dollar mansion, the richest Indian builds his costliest home in Mumbai, political parties hold day long debates in air conditioned rooms on the nuclear deal, buffet lunch and dinner soon follow, the average Indian viewer satiates his sentience with the lovelives, whims, diets and pilgrimages of his Bollywood (disgusting, why cant they find an original for this at least?) icons and from the tabloid news channels that churn up in disgusting details the criminal exploits of some mentally sick individual.
Our country boasts to be the largest, still working democracy (owing to the successful elections, by-elections, often too many, barring the leg-pulling, remote-controlling, party-hopping, new-part-forming, backstabbing and all other power plays 'normally' adopted by polititians of our country) and yet, the word 'democracy' is a farce as far as the common man is concerned. Many stay away from exercising their rights to vote (deceived to think as the best way of defiance to the ongoing anarchy), others 'over use' it and still others are unaware of any rights. Hence we have qualified criminals, bootleggers, tenth failed loud-mouthed dadas, ambitious (ofcourse for their own sakes) businessmen, tongue-tied moviestars as MLAs, MPs and even ministers!
We project our 'tolerant' secular image with pride but forget those dark days (not far behind and could be nearer in the future) when slightest provocation lead to communalism which rendered many homeless, fatherless, motherless...orphans, destitutes raped and left to die in the street in the name of whatever. Yes we are tolerant enough to entertain all those religious political parties.
The government boasts of rise in economy, the bulging purse of Indian middle class and the boost in per capita income. I quite agree as younger men and women are getting employed even before gradutaion. I personally know many who have quit college to work and make quick money, where they exchange their identity for an 'Erich' or a 'Michelle'. We are now bestowed with a generation mostly undergraduates, unskilled and having dearth of pros. But has anybody seen the coming danger? I hope so. The power of Mammon is quite intoxicating. The new xyz generation is finacially independent, yet, emotionally unstable and mentally confused. Morality takes a back seat here while all boundaries are blown apart. A veritable ticking bomb...
Is this the great Indian rising to turn in his bed and sleep again?
I love to travel by train as I enjoy watching our beautiful country's landscape unfolds through the window. Verdant fields, red earth, lakes, coastlines, hutments...But I hate to look out the window in the mornings especially near the stations as the railtracks serve the second purpose of being the lavatory for a majority in our country. Here the shy,coy wife/daughter, the sober father/son all sit, chat and watch the trains chugging along while they perform their morning duties nonchalantly.
The other day we were hurrying through a street, fortunately in a car (with the advantage of having a window to close) and were shocked (as usual) to see men turned to the walls, attending to nature's call. I would be only exagerrating in the negative If I have used the word shocked as this has become a usual scene through out our country. And I always thought women suffered fom urinary incontinence! Not only that, but men can stare at you at a bus stop or a shop, measure you up from top to bottom, even when you are well dressed (fully covered) but when women happen to pass a street with a man pissing round the corner, it is she who feels embarassed (and even scared that she might have seen too much) and looks elsewhere.
How can I ever forget our dear Indian brothers turning our nation into 'spitsville'?
BTW, did I call them brothers? (Un)fortunately I am reminded of the ever increasing number of rapes, assaults, and abuse unleashed on their 'sisters'. Children and grandmothers are not spared these days either. Is the media to be blamed for portraying perverted images and corrupting youngminds with warped ideas of sexuality? Or is it our own fault for lacking to provide a moral basis (though we often boast of it) to each generation in our haste to hoard wealth for them?
Every Indian city has a newface each day, with malls, multiplexes, boutiques, exclusive shops, joints, pubs springing up. Each screaming of better entertainment than the other. Fashion shows, music concerts, cricketmatches (this is the fusion of fashion, movies, music, cheerleaders and lastly and the least, sports), food festivals, raffles, inaugurations, movie campaigns and what not are held to mark the growth of a metro. Yet the bylanes still carry unattended rubbish heaps swarming with flies, street dogs take their nightly stroll in huge groups.
As evening darkens, the elite clink glasses of champagne and dance to techno music, men and women, some who came to work over a construction project (there is a mass exodus from villages to urban areas every year) for a measly sum and others who lost their land to the 'dream' project of someone else, huddle up with half empty stomachs under the flyovers and the unfinished patios of huge multiplexes, to get a goodnight's rest and dream of a better tomorrow...
We have super and multi speciality hospitals mushrooming everywhere and yet many do not adhere to basic medical requirements regarding hygeine of equipments and premises.
Inflation has hit the roof, an alltime high in 13 years, people have gone on a ricewater diet ( I am talking about the common man), farmers (the media likes to use the word 'ryot' rather than farmer as this sort of blinds our eyes as we feel that some 'ryot' has killed himself and not a farmer) still commit suicide, the number of jobless, homeless pushed to the street continue to increase, begging, prostituition, petty thefts increase... Elsewhere, an India-born industrialist purchases another billion dollar mansion, the richest Indian builds his costliest home in Mumbai, political parties hold day long debates in air conditioned rooms on the nuclear deal, buffet lunch and dinner soon follow, the average Indian viewer satiates his sentience with the lovelives, whims, diets and pilgrimages of his Bollywood (disgusting, why cant they find an original for this at least?) icons and from the tabloid news channels that churn up in disgusting details the criminal exploits of some mentally sick individual.
Our country boasts to be the largest, still working democracy (owing to the successful elections, by-elections, often too many, barring the leg-pulling, remote-controlling, party-hopping, new-part-forming, backstabbing and all other power plays 'normally' adopted by polititians of our country) and yet, the word 'democracy' is a farce as far as the common man is concerned. Many stay away from exercising their rights to vote (deceived to think as the best way of defiance to the ongoing anarchy), others 'over use' it and still others are unaware of any rights. Hence we have qualified criminals, bootleggers, tenth failed loud-mouthed dadas, ambitious (ofcourse for their own sakes) businessmen, tongue-tied moviestars as MLAs, MPs and even ministers!
We project our 'tolerant' secular image with pride but forget those dark days (not far behind and could be nearer in the future) when slightest provocation lead to communalism which rendered many homeless, fatherless, motherless...orphans, destitutes raped and left to die in the street in the name of whatever. Yes we are tolerant enough to entertain all those religious political parties.
The government boasts of rise in economy, the bulging purse of Indian middle class and the boost in per capita income. I quite agree as younger men and women are getting employed even before gradutaion. I personally know many who have quit college to work and make quick money, where they exchange their identity for an 'Erich' or a 'Michelle'. We are now bestowed with a generation mostly undergraduates, unskilled and having dearth of pros. But has anybody seen the coming danger? I hope so. The power of Mammon is quite intoxicating. The new xyz generation is finacially independent, yet, emotionally unstable and mentally confused. Morality takes a back seat here while all boundaries are blown apart. A veritable ticking bomb...
Is this the great Indian rising to turn in his bed and sleep again?
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