Today I was reminded of another difference between western countries and India.
When I am in the UK and I hold the door open for someone coming up behind me, I hear a "Thank you" as a matter of routine.
When I am in India, I still follow the same practice of holding the door open for the person behind me or to let the person on the other side of the glass door enter first. I know very well, that I will not hear any kind of thanks here, but subconsiously maybe, I half-expect it. Of course, it has never happened so far.
Doesn't matter if the place is frequented by men, women, businessman, rich people, software engineers, doctors, students or any other educated breed, expect the same behavior.
Now we are over 1 Billion in population. And somehow, despite everything, we seem to be quite proud of the fact.
But today it made me think.
Are we a nation of One Billion mannerless, inconsiderate, horn-honking, cricket-crazy, work-shirking idiots?
1 comment:
Hi!
Yes, we have been noticing for decades and comparing Indian to westerners and saying that we're no where near the mark. We have found reasons saying that India had to face foreign rule, India was looted by westerners, India went through a freedom struggle and that is why we are still like 'this'.
I have also heard some resigned Indian youth look at atrocious happenings in their surroundings and just lazily smile and say "C'mon yaar, that is India".
We all love our Indian parents, we love the feel of India, we love Indian food, we miss everything Indian when we're working in a foreign land,and yet we seem to be awed by the western culture to the extent that the language we communicate in, our accent, our dressing style, the movies we watch are all western based. On what level are we confused??
When we find mistakes in our culture, when do we plan to correct it? Which is that generation of Indians which is going to start taking up the task of creating the right type of Indians?
(1) When are Indian parents going to start accepting well mannered children in a house-hold? I mean, how many Indian parents teach their children to say 'please' and 'thank you'? If not in English, don't we ever have to use it in our own mother tongues? "Dhanyavadh" is a word I used to hear only at the end of a News session from the news reader's mouth. I'm sure there would be several times in a day where it could be used between any two people.
Indian parents train their kids at home in a way that the kid feels that saying "thank you" is making the relationship formal and the other person feel distant. Isn't that equal to teaching that being polite is rude? That is probably where we start confusing the young Indian mind.
(2) One of the reasons Indian teens are awed by westerners is for their perennial well groomed look. Which generation of Indian parents will accept that being well groomed is a part of life and allow their children to be neat and presentable always, instead of teaching them that dressing up is a waste of time and that they need to study instead? Isn't looking their best a birth right for a human being? Won't it boost their self confidence and make them aim higher and work harder in life?
Why do Indians go through the same emotions during teenage in every generation and then when they become parents become almost replicas of their parents? Are we scared of progress? Are we sadistic - what we didn't have, no kid should have? Are we aloof to the needs of our children? Are we confused? If yes, when do we plan to correct ourselves? Or will Indians continue forever to be ashamed of being polite; dressing to their best; and keeping their surroundings clean?
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