Apr 23, 2001 03:35 PM
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The amazing United States of America – a land which welcomes any and every nationality – after all its origins lies in the fact that people migrated out there from Europe. You pick up some cool nice to know stories about the US. Like the British in true English sense – decided that no-one would own a fire arm in the US and in complete rebellion all the US guys decided to defy them and got firearms. Today it is in American constitution that a US citizen can own a firearm while the English Bobbies still walk around patrolling with a bludgeon.
Another nice to know story – being from India and being completely surrounded by buildings, temples and monuments centuries old and not appreciating it, the US actually preserves any monument over a 100 years old. The government takes over the place and labels it as a historical location. I felt a bit silly traveling all the way over 100 miles to be shown monuments 100-200 years old when I know that we have Ayodhya, Ajanta and Ellora which has so much history and no appreciation from us Indians.
And of course their love of waiting – we sat in a plane on the tarmac for 3 hours and nobody even questioned the failure of technology – I of course thought of Bbay’s time is money and fidgeted. Everyone says – ‘hey tech problem tech problem’. The airlines is like our public transport system and you shouldn’t bother to complain - people hardly serve you so they sure will not be there to take your complaints.
What I learnt about the US is that they are very body touch conscious. After India’s local train jostling and shoving – this is a bit difficult to cultivate. Where you have to be oh so careful that even your clothes don’t happen to brush the other person else there is an offended ‘excuse me’. And then – the way they all wish each other when you are out jogging or exercising – its funny!!! You feel you need to even wish the dog with them and I was thinking that here in India is I did smile at the guy running next to me, he might mis-understand and I would have to instantly start running faster!!
And of course their body obsessions – work out, work out work out !! All the time every time. They do their body good, shop once a week and eat bland food that they cook dis-interestedly. They stop thinking outside their offices and they don’t question anything in an establishment. Standardisation is the name of the game where anything special needs to be paid for extra effort. They all hate questions and all say – ‘maam I don’t know I am the hired help – it’s a temp job’
The most funny thing is that they are amazed that Indians speak such articulate English and I speak really fast – so in the midst of a truly exciting story and I can hear – uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh and after 5 minutes I finish breathless and they say ‘sorry I didn’t get that’ Thank you - I need to learn the other new meaning of uh-huh.
But it is a beautiful country –it has amazing natural resources where everything is so lush and green and there are trees mountains and rivers flowing all over the place. It has the most well developed connectivity – you can drive the entire coast without a single traffic light and the roads are so brilliant. And I had a lovely time – they are all very courteous and very unidimensional – they are nice to you, don’t judge you on the way you dress, never make personal comments. In fact you would feel very Indian having 20 things to say about a lot of people only to be met with an uncomfortable silence.
They lead sane lives and do their own things – they don’t have to fight for resources the way we do and hence they are more relaxed and chill about life. More time and effort to feel and do good – in fact after a month there I too felt that there wasn’t any need to be rough and tough – you can be nice and cordial and happy. Then of course I landed in Bbay and the next time I had to climb a fast Bandra local I said pehle aap and got one jaap from my courteous harassed working Bbay Mom.
So much for propagating the US!!
