Chachu's Column #26: "Indians: The Global Citizens" (Part 2)

Hello All,
This is the second part of the silver-jubilee edition of Chachu's column. This column is a collection of contributions from readers including a contribution from myself. In particular, it has:

3. Joint Third Best entry wins Rs 100/- GC:
3b) My Observations on the USA" by Pankaj Chauhan a.k.a. PC
4. Other entries win Consolation Prizes Rs 50/- GC each:
4a) "Trip to Singapore" by Shaifali Aggarwal
4b) "Reflections on Life outside India" by Malay and Barnali
5. The Spritual Angle by Chachu

------- Contribution #3b: My Observations on the USA ----------
You must hear nice things about foreign countries many times, so I've put together the bad things.

After having spent more than five years in a country, you have an opportunity to learn about many things that aren't apparent in a short touristy kind of visit to the country. The image that you get of a country from media is very skewed. For those back home, US and other western countries might be all glamour and glitz. In this note, I'll point some bad sides that you may not have observed.

1. Poor remain poor, rich get richer: In a dollar driven economy, those who aren't that well to do tend to remain so. The most glaring example of this is access to affordable health care. At first glance, the health insurance system might appear fantastic. You just pay a fixed premium, and that takes care of all your health related expenses. Now the reality. A significant percentage of people can't afford to pay health insurance premiums. Moreover, health insurers routinely deny various claims. The most common trick is "Usual and Customary Charges". The insurance company can outright refuse to pay anything above this amount for - say a doctors' visit. Insurance agreements have large number of escape clauses. There are restrictions on which doctors you visit, what hospitals you go to. In the worst form of insurance, called HMOs, you provide the name of one doctor, and then you're stuck with that doctor forever. The sneaky tricks that the insurers play is endless. The worst part is if you don't have a job, or are between jobs, or haven't signed up for insurance by a deadline, a large number of insurers just won't take you. They don't offer individual health insurances. Most of them only sign up a group of people. The choice that you are left with if you want to sign up for individual insurance is very inferior to what you get as part of a group. Apart from health insurance, there are many examples, where the lower middle class and poor have to fight everyday. Banks have all sort of fees, just to have an account with them. The credit card companies and lenders squeeze the most juice out of poor people by having exorbitant interest rates and fees. Predatory lenders and check cashing companies are examples of entities that are involved. I could go on and go on.

2. Super biased media.
For a free democratic country, you'd expect to hear a large number of varied opinions. You wouldn't see any other propaganda driven mainstream media than here. What they pass off as news is so one sided, you realize it only after getting access to news sources outside the country. The truth a handful of corporations control all news outlets, resulting in corporate greed driven news coverage. There's one job that American media has been doing for ages and has been very effective at it. Keep junta under constant fear. Terrorists, killer bees, heavy fires, killer on loose, medical study showing some food may kill you, major crash on highway, these are the day to day items on the TV. A fearful populace is much easier to control, and politicians and corporations can get away with many things that would otherwise be punished.

3. Corporate interests precede everything: The privately held WalMart chain of retail stores has more net worth than all but 4 countries of the world! Sony is larger than Pakistan. Mega corporations have created large monopolies, which crush local economies and produce cheap, inferior products at high prices. Many local governments, public transport systems, libraries are under financial duress. Corporate greed has fueled consumerism in this country. This highly disposable society has created enormous problems for the environment all over the world. The corporations don't have any effective deterrent to be responsible. The only way to sustain the lifestyle promoted by corporations is to exploit other countries, in the form of cheap labor, dumping of waste products, etc. The amount of imports in this country is staggering.

4. Litigation: On surface, it may appear that everyone has equal access to judicial system. The truth is, the amount of money you have determines who wins the legal battle. Mega corps with tons of money routinely threaten regular people (and smaller companies) with frivolous lawsuits. Considering the might of the legal machine of the corps, your only recourse is to surrender to the will of these evil entities. Lawsuits by a group of people (called class action lawsuits) are another story. I think the only people that win are the lawyers, even if the corporation against which the lawsuit was brought loses.

5. Gun Deaths: The number of deaths by gun in this country is 400 times more than that of any other civilized country! This says a lot about the culture of fear that the people are living in. Closing all the house doors all the time is the norm here. Installing all kinds of fancy security systems still doesn't buy the junta a peace of mind, so you have guns in your house. American is a culture of bullying. Harassing and screwing others for your own gains without any consideration is the norm here. This also becomes apparent on a large scale, when you see the American involvement in international affairs. They have sponsored terrorism coups in many countries, overthrown many locally elected governments, destroyed the whole countries under the disguise of liberating the people of that country for their own material gains, the list goes on.

6. Segregation/Racism: This so-called advanced country is riddled with racism. There is a clear separation between blacks and whites. The neighborhoods they live in are divided more often than not. Although racism is illegal, it is still very much alive in the minds of people. Blacks and whites have separate churches! The number of black people you see in jails is ever on an increase and the number you see in universities and decent to well paying jobs is on a decline.

7. Some other random inconveniences: Mobile phones in this country plain suck. There's no standard. Mobile phone from one provider won't work with other provider. Companies don't have the concept of transferable numbers (the recently introduced law has caught all of them off guard). They try to suck the last remaining dollar out of your pocket. Human service is minimal to non-existent, every evident in airlines, mall shopping centers, etc. Cable TV prices are exorbitant. Expect to spend close to $100 or more per month on cable TV. Expect to spend many precious moments of your life holding on the phone, wading through the maze of automated machine replies and hold music.
------- End of contribution #3b: Courtesy Pankaj Chauhan aka PC(wins JOINT THIRD prize) ----------

------- Contribution #4a: Trip to Singapore ----------
It was just another day on the morning of 9th May 2001 - but for me it was a day full of activity and excitement. It was the day when I was flying to Singapore for a project assignment. It also happened to be my first trip abroad. I had heard a lot about Singapore, its people and its culture. At the end of it all, Singapore lived up to all my expectations.

A few hours of air travel saw me at Changi Airport in Singapore. The place seemed like a huge mansion with sparkling floors, well lit pathways with informative signboards at all the right places, tourist information counters and other amenities. The whole place was impressively decorated with flowers and fountains. Everything seemed to be so well managed. It was as if everyone knew what exactly to do and nothing seemed to be out of tune. That first feeling of ‘Perfection’ made me wonder, "Is it all for real!" But then I told myself that Changi airport is one of the most beautiful airports in the world.... May be that is why it is maintained so well or was it that this good maintenance had made Changi one of the world's better known airports! Who knows...who cares...truly Indian!

My company was supposed to arrange for my pick-up from the airport and drop me at my guest-house. I waited patiently for about half an hour but when no one seemed to be coming my way I grew a bit nervous. A gentleman at the airport sensed the tension on my face and came forward to help me. At first I was a bit reluctant to talk to him...but soon I realized that I had no other choice. The nearest phone available at the airport worked on a phone card but I had none with me. The person offered me his phone card and asked me to call up the concerned person. I talked to the person in-charge. After the call, I promptly returned the card to the gentleman. I offered to pay him the phone bill but he rejected it outright. I wondered how India or Indians would fare in a similar situation.

The next day saw me at the client's office where I had to report. The place had a very informal atmosphere. Everything seemed very orderly. Soon my Dept head came and met me and explained my roles and responsibilities. Within the next hour I was allotted all the resources including a cubicle with a working PC, telephone, stationary, access card, etc. One commendable aspect was that everyone from the CEO down to the gatekeeper was treated with equal respect. No one was looked down upon. Everyone was addressed by the first names; no one was titled ‘Sir’! After having coffee or tea people rinsed there own cups...even though a cleaner was there to do the job!.

Another pleasant experience in Singapore was travelling in metros and public transport buses. Every bus stop carried information about the route numbers and the expected times of arrival of the bus. And always, the buses were right there at the designated time! To keep a check on this practice, there were frequent and surprise inspections with the traffic inspectors standing at undisclosed intersections recording the time when the bus crossed that place. No bus moved until all the passengers were seated comfortably and the bus-doors were securely jammed. Even if there was a line of buses waiting at a stop, no bus driver honked for the bus in front to move. Everyone waited patiently for his or her turn to arrive and no bus driver ever stopped the bus in the middle of the road.

The metros in Singapore are also one of the most comfortable modes of transport and one of the best in the world. The bogies and the platforms are sparkling clean no matter what time of day it is. During my entire stay of 8 months in Singapore there was only one instance when the metro arrived late by 2 seconds from its scheduled arrival time. To my surprise the driver of the train actually announced that the train was delayed by 2 seconds due to some technical snag which had been taken care of and apologized that this might have caused the passengers some inconvenience! The way time is valued and managed by Singaporeans is really worth a practice.

Even cab drivers in Singapore were very methodical in the way they operate. No cab driver ever refused a passenger; even if it meant that the driver would have to go the opposite way. Unlike in India, the cab drivers in Singapore didn’t even ask the passenger where to go unless the passengers were comfortably seated with the seat belt on. In case the cab had been booked by someone to be picked up, the cab displays an ‘On call’ sign. Once I was coming back from office at 2:00am. The cab driver was probably new to the area and he took a wrong turn. When he dropped me at my guest house and I asked for the bill, he promptly gave me one but asked me to pay only as much as I paid everyday and did not want me to pay extra for the long drive that he had taken me for. I was stunned! I had heard that the cab drivers in Singapore were supposed to be among the most honest, but this was something too hard for me to digest. (I had been in Delhi for so many years but never once did I come across an auto driver who would not cheat me. The scene is no different in any city in India be it Chandigarh in the North or Chennai in the South!) I paid that cab driver the full amount. As I was coming up the lift I wished that some day things will become better in India as well.

I had started enjoying my stay in Singapore and now I had moved from the guesthouse to a PG accommodation. My landlady was a very friendly and co-operative one although she had warned me against mingling with our Chinese neighbours because for some unknown reasons they did not like the Indians much. Nevertheless whenever I met our neighbours on the stairs I smiled and tried to say a hello. But all I got was a cold look on their face. Later I learnt that this is much the case with almost all the Singaporean families. They preferred to keep to themselves and didn't socialize much. Even during the festivals, people mostly kept to themselves.

In terms of cleanliness and in maintaining law and order, Singapore holds the top position in the world. Although there were instances when you could find people spitting in the lift or smoking in a public place, but such instances were very rare. At every few meters one could find a dustbin. Even the buses had a small dustbin kept near the exit door where people could drop in their journey ticket. Every house had a garbage bin that was linked to a central garbage collection box meant for that apartment. People dropped the garbage into the bin. Each morning the garbage collection van came and emptied the apartments' central garbage box.

On the roads, major highways and junctions had electronic sign boards informing people of a fallen tree or accident or construction work. This helped drivers to avoid certain lanes for a smoother traffic flow. The use of horns on roads was minimal and at all crossings pedestrians were given the right of way irrespective of whether a policeman was around to keep a watch or not. To compliment all this Singapore also had a very pleasant weather throughout the year. The one thing predictable about Singapore weather was its unpredictability! One moment the sun would be shining and the next minute it would be raining cats and dogs!! Despite of such frequent rains all road in Singapore were well carpeted with no potholes or open drains. Everywhere you went the huge buildings with beautifully done interiors. The colorful water fountains and well-trimmed bushes on both sides of the road would be a sight to behold! I once happened to ask my landlady, "how is it that I never find any stray cows or dogs on the roads here? Don’t they have animals around in Singapore?” She smiled at my ignorance and said," You have animals and birds in Singapore but you will find them in the zoo or the safari where they are meant to be...not loitering around on the roads!"

Singapore made me realize what quality of life really meant. There, people did not have to bother about trivial things like water, road or power. Or for that matter, about the parking space at the next shopping mall. As a policy in Singapore, before buying a car, a person had to provide proof that s/he had a parking space for his car otherwise s/he was denied permission to buy any vehicle. Wary of the fact that uncontrolled growth in the number of vehicles will result in traffic jams in land and road scarce Singapore, the government has implemented a range of measures to manage car ownership and usage. The endeavor of the government is to promote use of public transport (like buses and metros) that was much more efficient than use private cars. Further, to avoid older vehicles plying on the road, road tax increased exponentially from the 10th year onwards (110% in the 11th year, 120% in the 12th and so on to a maximum of 150% from the 15th year onwards).

Despite these pleasant experiences and policies, at times I felt that Singapore (or any other country for that matter!) lacked the warmth and closeness that one finds in the people of India. Life in Singapore was much more mechanical and robotic. People would be there to help you out but the sense of belonging was amiss. It was akin to joining a number of jigsaw pieces that completed the picture but failed to convey the theme! People were aloof...they were lonely. The festivities lacked colour and enthusiasm. Sure enough, technology made up for the lack of most of the material things but peace and satisfaction is where the heart is.... And though I had a wonderful time in Singapore I am still happy to be back home in India with family and friends.

------- End of contribution #4a: Courtesy Shaifali Aggarwal(wins Consolation prize) ----------

------- Contribution #4b: Reflections on Life outside India ----------
Acceleration, not speed
========================
Barnali and I were driving down 101 from San Jose to LA. We were supposed to make it there in about 4 hours, driving at 75. The car hardly made a whiz as it passed the exits. It never ceased to amaze me how dead and motionless everything seemed, even at that speed, as though everything was still. I wondered if that was true about life in general, that we cannot feel speed, however fast it is. We are designed to feel acceleration. Being born in middle class India, the journey till San Jose was accelerating all right. Every year brought the promise of greater challenges and greater rewards. The years at IIT and then the grad life, job hunt, startup, bubble, burst; everything left a mark. But then, are things decelerating now? Is life an endless routine of typing, sleeping and again typing? Would life have been different in India? Could I have maintained the acceleration further if I worked in Bangalore instead of San Jose. Does family life hold more satisfaction over there...Too many questions with no answers...Grass definitely is greener on the other side, no matter which side you are on.

The path of excess leads to the tower of wisdom
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But before I condemn the life of an NRI to a meaningless materialistic chase ending in vain soul searching, let me state that such thoughts are more like sparks and not a steady current. Often such discussions start after weekend dinners with a bunch of friends. A full belly is still the best bet to stimulate the mind. Such thoughts are dismissed the very next morning where you get into the classic American sport of "enjoying the weekend". The feeling of just driving past the beaches, or hike for miles on trails is just incredible (And oh! they are innumerable). The sense of freedom is imbibed in life in America, its something you cant miss. Even during grad life days, when we were definitely below poverty lines here, life seemed to hold many more things to explore. In retrospect, life in India seemed like constant fights to get a foothold somewhere. But out here everything seemed an opportunity to learn. Sure, there is an insane excess of everything. Food, clothes, electronics, roads, cars, gas... The list is endless. And to think in most part of the world people have drinking water problems. But then probably this excess enables individuals to focus on other things than the everyday drudgery of life. Does life imply a "richer" experience in America than in India? Shouldn't life be the same in India if you earn enough.

It’s all about balance
======================
Finally home is where you live. And places don't mean much without the people. All the people I came across while my stay here have made the whole thing worth it. Perhaps I would have met the same people in India. Any comparison I have attempted so far between life here and in India, barring superficial differences, everything has always lead to the same answer; that only the people around you can make a difference. And if that is true, then there should not be differences between living in America and India. Of course, roads with potholes cannot be ignored and the same goes for second class citizenship. But one can get used to them. What remains after a lifetime of struggles and getting used to things is memories. America has given me very fond memories and I shall cherish them. For some odd reason, grass still looks greener on the other side and I try to reason myself that future memories would be more pleasant in India. In any case, its all about how you balance your past with your future.
------- End of contribution #4b: Courtesy Malay and Barnali(wins Consolation prize) ----------

------- Contribution #5: The Spiritual Angle ----------
It has been nearly a month since the first part of the silver jubilee edition was posted. I had then promised of sending the next column in about a week’s time. However, a month has passed, and I have been somewhat lazy. The title for my contribution - The spiritual angle - was ready long time back. But the contents were not forthcoming. I was not sure whose spirit I was referring to. There were some vague thoughts - ‘About the yearning of the spirit’; ‘About the desire to do something different, be different’. But nothing concrete could emerge.

But then I received an email from my friend in US. He wrote, “I am still searching for the real truth and I guess in that sense it doesn’t make any difference whether you are in India or in US. So, my experience in US has been that it’s just a different kind of life - I wouldn’t say good or bad - I'd just say, they are as clueless about the meaning of life as anybody else in the world. When I talk of "meaning of life", I am not talking about the "personal meaning of life" that is arbitrarily chosen by individuals. I am talking about the collective aim of humanity or more generally the whole alive nature. Why are we cruising through the empty spaces at the speed of earth and where are we headed? My experiment of moving in here has confirmed one thing so far - it doesn’t matter where you are externally or how much you own or how much you are known and the real question to answer is still the quintessential question of existence.”

His email provided me the food for thought. Indeed, what is the purpose of our lives? Before I continue any further, it is important to see how this discussion is related to the theme of this two-column series “Indians: The Global Citizens”. The relation is subtle yet evident. Every individual has a void in his/her life - a profound emptiness. And everyone chooses a different course to fill this gap, this vacuum. Some seek this fulfillment in their vocation, some in their relation and some in salvation. Narendra in his contribution says “After having lived in the US for more than four years, my heart craves for the 'emotional bonding' with home country, to be with people around me to whom I can relate to.” Manju Banka puts the same feeling in different words, “in the end, though our bodies may live in San Francisco, London, Dubai or Surabaya, our hearts and souls remain in India.” Many NRIs can relate with this feeling. When I was in Japan, nearly all alone, and used to see the same trains running at the same time with the same set of people in the same hurry, I used to long for a change, long for being in India where there was some chaos, some discord. Returning back here, I found the chaos shocking and longed for the Utopia, the perfect world. And before one finds the perfect world, one must first define the perfection.

So what and who is perfect? The second biggest economy, Japan, where the people smoke and gamble like crazy, but epitomize quality? Or the Americans who profess the virtues of free trade, but want to ban outsourcing, where, as Pankaj puts it, the media is biased, the rich are getting richer, and where there are gun deaths and other random inconveniences? Or is it India shining, a nation that is simultaneously living in ten different centuries, where 8 lane super expressways co-exist with the pot-holed roads, where gallons of water go to manicuring the lush fields of a golf course, while many clamour and fight for water, where corruption is a way of life and road etiquette abysmal? Or is it Singapore, as Shaifali puts it, a nation that made her realize what quality of life really meant, a nation that lacked the warmth and closeness that one finds in the people of India.

What is the perfect world? Where is Utopia? Is it in the halls of Mathura where foreigners throng for chanting ‘Hare Rama, Hare Krishna’, on at Mars where people are trying to find life? Is it at Kasauli where people go for a quite weekend or is it finding the cure for SARS? Or is it in finding the balance as Malay puts it in his contribution?

Leaving you with those random thoughts.

Chachu 30/1/2004
------- End of contribution #5: Courtesy Chachu(wins no prize) ----------

Web Resources
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http://www.expatsingapore.com (general information on singapore)
http://www.expatsingapore.com/once/cost.htm (owning a car in Singapore)

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