how do others view india?

i had an interesting experience at St.Gallens university the other day... it is quite amazing how widely varying the european public's view is about india- it spans the entire range - the very few who look at india for its high tech high end computing skills to the majority who still conjure up cows on the non existent roads and poverty when they think of india..

i will never forget the german chappie who after speaking to me for 5 minutes, very proudly asks- are you from pakistan? it seems he had a couple of friends from there and he was proudly showing off that he knew about that part of the world- this reminds me of a gaffe i committed-on a flight in 2002 i asked a swiss german whether he would support germany in the worldcup finals against brazil - for the record, i got my head bitten off- it seems the swiss germans think the chaps who speak "hoch deutsch" are infra dig, and the very vocal swiss would always go ra-ra brazil. moral of the story- dont ask an indian if (s)he is from pakistan, atleast not if you want to win friends and influence people.

coming back to st Gallens, there was this rather quiet (and good looking, i might add!) german girl that i was trying to impress with my speech(obviously!)- and at the end of it all, she asks me- what would india do about its brain-drain problem- i.e, if every educated indian moved out of india, who would progress the country? guess that put paid to any ideas i may have had of impressing her- but my response was- the 20 million (compare that with the billion still left in the country) outside india were already contributing in terms of money, skills and brand ambassadoring the country's name.

then there are the "patronisers"- who sort of sidle upto you and commiserate with you abotu india, and say- it is our moral right as the first world to provide for the third world countries- thanks mate, they dont want any handouts, thank you- india is quite capable of creating her own wealth.

one very interesting view from france- the traditional english speaking worlds view of france is its intolerance to anything not french- my personal experiences in paris and in other parts of france has been quite interesting- they tend to appreciate that indians in general tend to hang onto their cultures rather than just blindly copy the cultures of the west, and that is something they feel strongly about.

however, the most interesting views emerge from the 2nd generation indians that live in europe- the ones that came in as children or were born here... they tend to carry a fairly deep chip on their shoulders about india and are not particualry sure as to how they view india- on the one hand, when they were growing up, indians and india was not particularly well regarded, and yet, given genetics, their association with india was inescapable, so many of them end up perpetually feeling that they need to prove a point, and hence tend to be quite sensitive to their indianness...

all this contrasts with the american view- after all, europeans tend to view americans as "not really having a culture" that is beyond 300 years old... but the interesting point is, it seems to make the americans more accomodating of multiple cultures as compared to most europeans.

my view- there are many indias- afterall this is a country that is almost 20 times the size of britain by population- and it reflects in the wide variety of cultures and subcultures that exist in the country.

on the one end (about 40 million households) live in relative poverty- with all their income being expended on basic living necessities- food, shelter clothing etc... , then there is the so called middleclass- about 70 million households which can afford a bit more, and who are sustaining the boom in india now, and at the top is about 1.2 million households, which think, earn and spend like a global community.

traveling through Heathrow

i hate flying out through heathrow... there is something viscerally difficult about the entire experience..

maybe i am genet'ically gifted to be clumsy, or maybe i am plain intimidated, but my ability to navigate myself through a complex e-ticket, to get myself into a plane and onto parts beyond seems to be a superhuman task...

the problem starts while booking- i tend to book myself onto a flight at say 1830, and that is the start of my nightmares...

come the day of travel, and i know i should ahve carried that damn bag to work and then taken off from work to the airport, but i have forgotten, henc ehave to go back to home, pack, panic, repack, and see that i have just 1 1/2 hrs for the flight to take off, and i am still at home...

then comes the panic part- i cannot make it by train, or by taxi, because the only way i can be in time for the flight is if i fly myself to heathrow (atleast until means of "teleportation" or whatever flash gordon used to call it is invented)

so, with my heart pounding away at 120, and my blood filled more with adrenaline than corpuscles, i reach the desk about 15 mintues before the flight leaves...

the lady smiles very politely and tells me the gate is closed- it does not matter that i have flown with them zillions of times, and i am being exceedingly polite and saying that it is all my fault...

and then, there was this one time when i woke up really early, got to heathrow well on time for the flight, and then found that i was sitting outside the wrong gate, and apparently missed all their "last and final call for Mr...." summons..
you absolutely have to hear about this one- i landed up for the flight at 10 30 in the night, but found that the flight had left , obviously, without me, at 10 30 in the morning...
the sum and total of all this is, i hate traveling to heathrow and out of heathrow...

an indian in england

hmm, my first blog attempt...

this blog is intended to be a spot for indians to muse about their experiences of britain... please point me in the direction of anything that resembles what i am looking for, and of course, it is your blog, please comment on it as well...

have started rather ambitiously- adopting the title of "an indian in london"- not sure if i have the credentials, but here goes...

what would be the tracks i would take, if i wanted to muse about my experiences?

weather, i suppose would be a favourite, afterall, it is to most londoners.. (the most seen/heard program that gets it wrong almost all the time i)

The one thing i have learnt to appreciate is the value of the sun, i suppose- having come from country where one is used to continually overdosing on the sun, to be in a country where the sun is really hidden, and hidden very well most of the time- starting from really dismal january and february- where the one continual impression is darkness and more darkness, to summers that are "heatwaves" at 25 Celsius, and the most popular car on the road is a convertible, and one's idea of "cool" is to be driving around in really cold air with the hood of your M3 down... ( ever felt the air rush past you at 15 celsius? it can be very cold) with a pair of dark glasses that are not really required...

i guess i have become more british that way, i have started to crave for the sun now... ( i hear that the happiness of peoples is more a function of the amount of sun they can soak in, not the economic wealth they own- hey now i refuse to believe that- why am i here then???)

so that concludes my rant#1 on weather....

let me talk about something else- English....

i think the biggest thing England has going for it is English- imagine, you have invented the means of communication the world uses... and believe me, the british are past masters at using and managing english- from the subtle nuances where you dont even realise that you are being chastisised but you very clearly are, to the "oh so polite" but very clearly evident ticking offs, to the satire and the sarcasm- i marvel in the english's use of english. Every day, it is a delight to read the papers, be it the broad sheets, or the phenomenal titles in the sun, be it the left media or the right media, be it the comments on the FT or the rants on the "news of the world"...

the other thing i am increasingly learning to appreciate is the way the language can be used to achieve what you want.. if there is one thing i want to take away from britain, it would be an ability to use the language the way the english use them.,.

well, that was a start, wasnt it? now, i am waiting to find if there are more of you folks out there that want to comment on this...