EDIT: Life as seen by an Indian in both countries, and also an NRI perspective on it
Life in India: Active social life, traffic and pollution, get to spend quality time with friends and family, neighbours are always there to help you at all times, it takes a long time to get your official work done, you get to eat Ratnagiri Alphonso mangoes as much as you want, you love it when it rains after the terrible summer heat, you rarely ever feel you are alone, you like listening to old hindi songs and say the new ones are nowhere close, money decides your social status, you can employ people to work at your home for cleaning/dusting etc., get togethers aren't rare, you crib all the while, you ask people to conserve water, you are surprised if you don't see mangoes on the next corner, you complain about the population rising all the time, you complain that the government is neglecting its people, school life is fun as you realise you end up learning something, college education is a necessity, you complain that life in USA would be better but are unable to make it there, you can say fearlessly that you are proud to belong to your country.
Life in USA: High standard of living, AC/microwave/heating aren't luxuries, dead social life - each man to himself, you get all that you want under one roof in the supermarkets, you feel insecure even with trivial issues, you can't distinguish much between old and new songs, no matter how much you earn, you are always the average joe, it's so costly employing household help, you would rather go work for someone else's home instead, you have so many cuisines and so many cultures around you that you start liking other cultures, you enjoy pursuing your hobbies whenever you get time, get togethers are luxuries, you crib all the while, you ask people to conserve paper, you are delighted when you see mangoes in the mart, you complain that the government is busy invading oil territories and that it's neglecting its people, school life is fun as you realise you should learn something after it ends, college life is a privilge, you say that life in India would have been better but are not sure if you can adapt to that if you get back, you start believing that borders and man-made territories are unimportant.
Any more points? I am open to including more.
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10 comments:
Maybe "Life of an Indian in USA and life of an Indian in India", is a better title. :D
@prat - I felt I needn't mention - I am not going to get any other perspective on these anyways, at least not in this life. :)
P.S. Get-togethers rare in USA meaning - spending quality time with family and friends isn't as easy as in India.
YA TRUE THING SHREK BOY
WHEN THE LIFE GETS SO MECHANICAL,THERES LITTLE TIME FOR THEM TO SOCIALISE.
AND THAT EXPLAINS WHY THEY GET SO FRNDLY EVEN IN THE FIRST COUPLE OF MEETINGS. BCAUSE THEY PROLLY NEED SOMEONE TO TALK TO AND NO ONE HAS TIME TO SPARE.
I THINK THE SAME THING IS PRESENT IN IIT AS WELL...EVERYONE IS SO BUSY...AND ALL FRNDSHIPS BECOME FARCE
@shiv..
Agreed - exactly what I feel; as I see it, the key is too much to do and too little time to spare.
Don't agree with the IIT theory though :)
If those friendships were farce, I would never have realised the difference here in the first place :D
wow shrek, liked this post a lot.. surprisingly :P
and i dont agree with iit point too, i think ppl meet up, do lots of tp in iit just that its with just one gender, but otherwise, the hostel life, the wing culture is too good.
@abhi...
so finally i have succeeded in pleasing you eh :)
yeah you are right about iit life - would have been way better tho had it not been one gender :P ;)
Well, About the mangoes bit, come on Shrek, U r in a non-mango rpoducing country right now! Americans would be equally delighted to get fresh strawberries - or something like tht here :). But rest, maybe u r right, haven't been there.. will tell u once I am there :)
@CB...
Maybe.
One thing I've noticed though - people desire for things we take for granted in india (family, holidays, time to spend with friends etc., household help, maids etc.) and back in india we desire for things these people take for granted... how odd for me to be sitting here and saying all this.
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