La diferencias

Every conversation I have had with people in the past three months has, somehow, found its way to the exact same question: How different is India from America? My answer has, invariably, been met with surprise, and in a few cases, downright skepticism. It is not that I am writing this post to dismiss all the disbelief that I have managed to evoke in the past three months. This post might just serve to further that disbelief. However, from the first impressions that I have had of America, there isn't much difference.

Let me hasten to qualify that this country doesn't look the same as India. Indeed, there are better roads, swankier cars and centrally air-conditioned buildings in the ratio of 10 to 1. But so what? I refuse to let these physical differences qualify for differences between countries. They are differencs, yes, and things take getting used to, I don't deny that. But there is nothing so fundamental about them that it takes a complete re-orientation of one's world-view.

Let me dwell on the differences before I get to the similarities. The only difference I have noticed here in the little time that I have had is that people take themselves much more seriously. They define themselves by the work that they do, and they are good people or bad people depending on how well they work. Personal relationships, or so it seems, come second. This difference has many manifestations. The guy blowing the leaves of the pavement seems to take his work seriously. For him, it is imperative that all the leaves get off the pavement. Compare this with an Indian municipal employee who will miss work three days out of seven in a good week, and leave the pavement not substantially better than he found it. For him, there is no dignity in his labour, and hence he isn't ashamed to do a bad job because there is nothing lost. Here, there is a certain minimum dignity in everything.

This minimum dignity explains pretty much everthing: from systems that function, to the services sector that India needs to learn a lot from.

The desire to do ones job well is the only difference I have noticed.

And now we come to the "similarities." The city I am in seems like Delhi, the city I was in last. It is as hard to get about as Delhi is, it is as much on the road as Delhi is, and it is a lot more polluted than Delhi is. This city has as much poverty as Delhi does, just that it isn't quite the same thing to publish the photo of an American beggar as it is to publish one of an Indian beggar in a photojournal. People are hard to relate to, something that potentially qualifies as a major difference, but that is only because I am not sure of they way they think. This, incidentally, is true between different states in India, and for that matter, between different communities in each state; and if you really want to get specific, this differs from family to family and at a still more micro level, from individual to individual. So its relevance as a differentiating factor between countries is kind of dubious anyways.

Still more similarities: People here lie, cheat and pick up money they find on the pavement. People here mug people. Everyone here breaks traffic rules when they know they are not in the vicinity of a camera. People drive drunk. People here do all the things people do in India. They also do a few that they don't do in the more conservative parts of India, but Delhi, as it happens, is not the most conservative of India cities.

My take on my very limited experience is this: the major differences between the two countries are physical; the prominent difference in attitudes is in their work ethic. The two cities, Houston and Delhi, feel the same, and hence I find it hard to say that there are too many differences. Of course, I am assuming that when people ask me that question, they don't want to know about left hand drive and toilet paper.

My view on this might change with time as I see and absorb more of this place. But till such time, I stick by my stand.