I have lived in India for over 10 months now. I cannot claim to have learnt the art of living in India, but there are many things that I learnt over the time. I am getting used to things that I never expected to get adjusted to. For someone who lived abroad in a not so dog-eat-dog world, India is certainly a very puzzling country. At once one experiences intense love and intense hatred, rare levels of devotion and extreme forms of wickedness, abject poverty and filthy wealth, nauseating behaviour as well as unexpected kindness and the list can go on.
There are volumes to be written about what I have learnt over the years. In summary it all boils down to one simple lesson – India is a very gray country, a very thick gray country. Allow me to explain; in the west things are viewed mostly in black and white. There are good guys and there are bad guys, you either followed the law or you did not, and you are either on leave or you are at work. In India many of these simplest things are analyzed based on the context in which it is viewed. It is very easy to get your license or pay your taxes and at the same it can turn out to be the most complicated thing you ever attempted to do. There could be myriad reasons for it. In essence there is no written law but everyone seems to understand and live with it.
| Other things to read… |
| Traffic Police |
| Protocol Issues |
| Come to the point please |
| Living in a small town |
| Driving in India Part 1 Part 2 |
| Friends and Family |
| Meeting Amazing People Part 1 Part 2 |
| Traveling in India |
The country moves on. The wealthy exploit the poor and the poor behave like if they don’t care. The muscled dominate over the weak and the weak think that it is better to be dominated by this muscled guy than the other one about whom they have heard the worst things ever. The educated take advantage of the uneducated and the uneducated do not see a point in getting educated. The working class is not interested in the work they do and a majority of the people end up in a profession that they do not like.
There is no easy way to navigate our lives in this knotty and complicated nation. However, I have attempted to outline a few random thoughts that were shocking to me initially, but found out later that it is the way of life here in India.
Starting from today, I am going to write about a few things that I learnt the hard way. I took considerable amount of time to get adjusted to these things. There will be many things to talk about and this series may run into a dozen different topics.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Mr. Sahadev,
I appreciate your thoughts and Ideas. As you said, Our Nation is not maintaining the proper Budget Allocation. That is the one of the main reason why Poor is becoming More Poor & Rich is becoming More Rich & the situation of Middle Class people has become hope less… In Our Daily Atmosphere, Day starts with adjustment & Day ends with adjustment. Main reason for this is 1) Corruption 2) Lack of Recognisation of Young Talents, we have no third problem. Because of Corruption our standard of living has fall down drastically, Because of Lack of Recognisation, Young Talents are Migrating to Abroad forcibly as they are starting their carrer with lot of responsibilities in the family. Only one thing can change our future or atleast our next Generation’s Future. That is “Revolution in the Sociecty”. It is very near as people are getting awared in this generation but for that some more damage has to be occured as our society is still sleeping, I am one among them. Some times I feel like we are “Half-Dead” & we are not yet raised to that level to “Unite one among the others” which is lacking only in Human Beings, rest all animals has Unity. Here I want to share a small example with you. Hardly Our Corrupted Politicians are in 100s or at the most in 1000s, we the Nation’s Population crossed 125 Crores. We the 125 Crores of victims (People) are watching these “Politicians Corrupted Puppet Show” since decades. Every Corruption is an open secret but “ZERO ACTION”. Everybody must scare to attempt the Crime but How ? For that system must be in such a way where people must fear of punishment in attempting the Crime which is implementing in many countries. This is my personal opinion, my opinion may go wrong even, I don’t know. Once again I appericiate your Idea & awareness of living in India.
Dear Gopi,
Thanks for your comments. We can keep thinking about all the problems that India faces or we can just do our work in helping out as much as possible. As for me I am not waiting for a revolution to happen!
Sahadev garu,
Read through a few pages/articles in this site and appreciate the path you have chosen. It require lot of conviction and adjustment after living in different places with different culteres and different mentality. I don’t want refer first world or third world here as it is relevant to the view you choose to see as highly materialistic, professional, clean, industrialized or philosophical, patience, perseverance, not so clean..
However, I have a question about this article again not questioning you(self evaluated myself and thought not eligible to question you) but trying to understand the thoughts you went through when you wrote this article. I guess all your bringing up, education and early life were in India, may be I missing the fact. I know everybody realize more as they age and see world in transformational views from time to time but a few of descriptions above sound like you have experienced these now after your return to India but not in the past during your early life??
Hi Rajesh garu,
Thanks for the comment and apologies for a long delay in responding.
I grew up in India. I left for the US when I was 23. Having lived abroad for too long, I found living in India again as a new experience and I was obviously forgetful of the way I lived when I was in India. You brought up a good point, I was probably going overboard in describing my new life in India. After 3 years of stay in India, I am fully adjusted to the new life and I am in a position to say that I shall not complain any more.