Source: Quora | Author: Brendan Stewart | Image Courtesy: athleticsinjapanmlb
I’ll write this reply as an American with lots of Indian friends, Indian wife and having spent a lot of time in various parts of India.
1. Neither system is perfect. The United States isn’t even close to perfect. But neither is India. Everyone here has cited examples of positives and negatives on both sides and i have some of my own.
a) One thing that really upsets me in India is that people don’t pull over for ambulances. It could be your own grandmother dying in that ambulance, but drivers in India don’t move for that ambulance.
b) Conversely, here in the United States, a mother could give birth to a child in a hospital and once the child has been born, they are left alone with barely any care in a hospital room. They are hurried to leave the room and go back home. These things would never happen in India. There are always lots of people around to take care of you and help you with various things, even outside of immediate family.
My point being that there are positives and negatives on both sides.
2. Nostalgia vs. Practicality. I fell in love the first time i went to India in 1999. I loved the chaos, the culture, the festivals and social scene, i thought it was all great. I’m not one of those American’s that stayed in Taj Hotels and hired drivers to go everywhere. I stayed at local small places, took the train and bus and forced myself to integrate. And i remember thinking to myself, how can my friends from India living in the US be happy in the United States? But, i was in India as a tourist until i met my wife. And coming to India as a tourist and living in India are two entirely different things. As a tourist of any country, typically you are seeing the best that country has to offer. Not the reality of day-to-day stuff.
a) The luster of India wore off on me once I became an OCI and our family had to do administrative actions. We had to change ownership of some land at a mini-secretariat in Gurgaon. Holy shit. What a nightmare, we were put in a long queue, had to wait for workers to finish lunch. Bribed a guy to get us through the line faster, visited over 10 different serving windows for various checks. Had to pay a lawyer to print a paper, come back and bribe some CM to approve the land sale, How does this system function?
b) My wife and I went to the Post Office in Gurgaon and tried to redeem her 401k pension thing (I forget the name of this) and the Post Office was a complete nightmare as well. I had these sweaty railroad workers pushing on me and yelling at people behind the counter. It was absolute chaos.
c) On the Delhi metro and witnessing young ‘men’ not letting old ladies sit down. For me that is unacceptable. It’s basic human decency. Nothing about culture here.
Anyhow, my point here is this – I used to wonder how my friends from India could live in the United States, based on the cultural differences, the great food, the strong social/family circles etc. I thought they lost a lot of that coming to America.
Until i had to live like a local. Then it started to make sense to me. All the aggravation, of simple tasks, the impossible morning/evening commutes, bribes to make people just do their basic jobs like it was a favor to me, hiring someone to clean my flat, clean my car, tiffen service, all these little things, it adds up.
So i personally think it’s a matter of Nostalgia vs. Practicality. For some people nostalgia is stronger than practicality and for others practicality is more important than nostalgia.
Who is to say which way is better? It’s a very personal decision.
Let’s take a few other things into account,
3. Future-Proofing. India is progressing at an amazing rate. For example, just look at how people celebrate Holi in a village vs. a city. It’s not even close to the same thing. Villages still breathe and live authentic old-school Indian life. In cities, a bunch of people plan to meet, throw some color a little bit (Mostly rubbing some on themselves) and they call this Holi. Same can be said for Diwali. Not the same in cities vs. Villages.
20 years from now, it’ll be like Christmas in the United States. Just pageantry. The real meaning of the festivals will be lost in cities especially.
Look at the way children are raised today. Men taking care of their parents is becoming less and less standard each and every year.
My point here is, while many of you (And even myself) have very fond memories of the older India, the fact of the matter is that when any culture ‘progresses’ they start to lose their culture and identity. And India is not immune to this problem.
I suspect 20 years from now, if we were to have this same conversation, the nostalgia factor would be much less in India’s favor, just because India is changing so rapidly.
My personal hope and belief is that India doesn’t lose its identity. It’s such a rich culture and fun country, i hope it never changes. But nobody can stop prog…
