“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” ~St. Augustine
As per the above quote, I’ve been lucky enough to have read a few extra pages.
These extra few pages have helped me understand a very interesting facet of human beings.
How priorities can change a lifestyle and define certain cities and its attitude.
I hail from India. India in itself is vast enough to write countless books from the experience.
But let’s stick to our line of thinking.
It is common knowledge that India lives in its villages. In its 60+ years of independence a lot has changed cosmetically in the rural parts of India. However, the priorities still remain basic. While you may see apartments, internet cafes, people showing off their cell phones, driving in swanky cars, malls springing at every corner or the fact that all major brands are trying to capitalize on the large consumer pockets, the basics like education, power supply and water supply still leave a lot to yearn for. In a city like Mysore that is supposedly twin city to a major Indian IT Hub Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore), the tourist attraction Mysore Palace is lit in its full glory while the rest of the city is pushed into darkness in the pretext of load shedding. Do they promote tourism at the cost of their own comfort? Do they believe that tourism will fetch them enough to get their infrastructure in place? What exactly are their priorities?
Probably, community behavior is defined by such necessities. The word development is abused in such places. In reality, they’ve just grown not really developed.
Born and brought up in a city like Mumbai, I found a lot of practices funny and a lot of questions unanswered. Over a period of time and after travelling quite extensively within India, it was kind of getting clear that development in its true sense is leashed by so called cultural values. The lines and facts are so distorted, people can’t tell the difference between superstition; age-old customs and the true cultural value. Gender bias is another devil that still has its horns and tentacles rooted deep in the skin. But the best thing is we are all together in this mess and we seem to enjoy it. We complement each other and also understand the various cultural nuances – hence we are still a tolerant nation.
Despite having been betrayed by every passerby, our culture teaches us to Trust – until betrayed. Guests who just suddenly show up are still considered as Demi-Gods a.k.a “Athithi Devo Bhava”.
Although the urban population and a percentage of our rural population are inching towards nuclear and nano families, on the whole at least the sentiment of a family, relatives and friends is still intact. We would do anything and go to any extreme to help each other. Never mind the bickering and ego trip that follows.
Then opportunity flew me miles away to the other spectrum of the globe. While the USA was truly developed in almost all aspects, they miss some of the other basics.
To put things in perspective, the infrastructure is something India will take ages to get to. The social security system, the civic sense, the chivalry, the public behavior, the way a common man’s life is made simple are all things that every Indian would envy and dream of. Efforts are well rewarded and living in a HOUSE (not a pigeon hole) and driving luxury cars are not really a distant dream. However, like I mentioned, the other basics are missing. Their system does not allow you to trust anyone. Not even your parents, spouse or offspring. Almost everything is prepaid. The concept of “post-paid” does exist but you are entitled only after a thorough credit check and background check is run. They are flocking in hordes towards Yoga, meditation, Ayurveda and other Indian practices, which we seemed to have lost touch with in the mad rush towards westernization.
The standard of living there is so high that labour is expensive. Anything manual is considered Art and has a heavy price tag attached to it. Every parent is forced to work and then look for expensive baby-sitters. They work a little extra so they can afford that very baby-sitter. I’ve come across families who are not sure if they are working to pay for that baby-sitter or are they hiring a baby-sitter so that they can focus on their respective careers.
Considering the fact that geographically India is 1/3rd the size of the US, it still houses 3 times the population of the US. That explains the cheap labour and also the birth of a concept called “Outsourcing”. Is it not priorities that were warped when this concept blew itself out of proportion and has both the parties injured? A decade ago, every corporate in the developed world jumped on to show huge savings. But now, they are at a verge to topple governments to get those very jobs back. India on the other end basked in bubble bath marketing the cheap labour but now the very IT or ITES companies are being blamed for inflated real estate markets or astronomical commodity prices. Resultantly the companies have to adjust their pay-scale to meet the employee’s insatiable needs.
Other developing countries are now having an edge over India not realizing that they will eventually get into the same rut. Let’s just hope that they have their priorities right and learn from others’ mistakes.
Have I made my point? I hope. But this does remind me of another quote:
“Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation.” ~Elizabeth Drew
So let’s just stop here and get our priorities right – wot say?
