ChinmaY

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Thursday, March 31, 2005

Its now around 3 months I'm here in UK. Away from home. Before coming here people were teeling me about the culture here and all. The bizzarre things they have experienced and all. But actually I have liked too many things here from the society point of view. But that does't means that I'm against our traditions and culture. They are good and very much necessary. But I'm against the extra-ordinary importance given to it. First of all lets start from the western culture. It can be described in just one word 'FREE'. Everybody is free here. U don't have to ask somebody to do things or not. Then the zero differences on the basis of caste system is the main thing behind the growth. These people don't relate the very basic things of life to religion, god an all. If u observe u can see girls smoke here more than boys. They drink regularly. This is the part of their culture. But they are ready to bend or make change in their lifestyle accroding to the needs. That's why some of my colleagues were aghast when they saw girls smoking and all. :) Because from childhood what we learn is that smoke/drink is not for girls and its just for boys. And when any indian girl acts like this she becomes a hot topic of discussion. If we want to grow in real not only city infrastructure and all then we have to open up our minds. One more example is many of colleagues here don't know how to make a just a tea. I think this is the most shameful thing. This is the very basic thing needed for survival. U can find here women drivers of trams, buses, trains. And in India what we do is just pass comments on woman drivers. Its not the fault of women. All of us are thinking on wrong lines. Yesterday only I read one article regarding India's poor traffic control and infrastructure. The consumerism has swept India after IT boom has started. At the age of 30 everybody buys a car, house and all. But nobody thinks of the road conditions and all. Which is the main cause of the number accidents. The need of the time is to open up. Break the rules and then only we can think on other things. One thing I observed here. Firstly I though how weired these people are? The thing is I have heard car horn just for a single time in last 3 months. Using car horn is considered here as bad manners. And still the traffic moves smoothly. The point is discipline which helps people here. Many people with me here use dustbins regularly to throw paper, cigarettes and all. But in India they were just throwing the stuff on the road. And then they proudly say back in India that this-that country is very clean and all.