“Whatever you say about India, the opposite is also true” – famous saying about India that didn’t make much sense until I got here. The country is extremely diverse and full of contradictions. With 23 “official” languages and over 1,000 dialects, a fellow Indian from a few hundred km away can only communicate with a local using hand signs or English.
Many have a stereotype of India as a land full of spiritual guides, temples, Buddhists, and yoga sessions 
which is obviously not true. Average Indian is moderately religious, and hasn’t read any of the scriptures. There are less than 1% of Buddhists. The other Hindus (83%), Muslim (11%), Christians (3%), and Sikhs (2%) co-exist peacefully, aside from 3 explosions by our apartment. IT company campuses have more security than a prison, with checkpoints, barbed wires, and metal detectors on the outside, but beautiful on the inside:
(Infosys HQ)
I have never traveled with a group of strangers before. It is stunning how close you can get in a week. As diverse as our group is, we are connected by our common passion for global business, other cultures, and search for adventure. It blows my mind that all people don’t go on trips like this, especially when in school. At no time you learn and evlolve as much as when you travel.
We meet and network with the most intelligent, famous, and successful people in India, who don’t just give us textbook lectures, but rather advices for life drawn from business perspective. Our local business school is in top 5 in India, and is more difficult to get into than any Ivy League school. All the friends that we’ve made from there are 21 or 22 years old finishing their MBA. None of them work, and most have never worked. Everybody’s tuition is paid by parents. There are no scholarships, financial aid, or loans. After graduating with a MBA, most will get a job starting $15-25K/year.
Girls will have about 2-4 years to get married, guys – 2-6 years. Most will be married by their parents. Usually a dad will place a classified ad like the one in the picture or find a potential spouse online. Dad will meet with him/her. If everything goes smoothly, the families will meet, and finally the guy and the girl will meet for 10 minutes to see if they are compatible. At which point most will get engaged. My guess the conversation goes something like this: “You like movies? I like movies. You like hip hop? I like hip hop, too! Let’s get married.” 6-8 months later they get married. In lower classes, son’s family will often ask for a specific dowry (car, $5K, etc.), which is now illegal. There are also rare dark sides of dowry in rural and poor communities, like dowry death. Where a bride is either driven to suicide, or killed by the husband or husband’s family due to insufficient dowry. Therefore male offsprings are preferred. Finding out baby’s gender before birth is illegal. If the husband dies, the widow is considered unlucky, who drove her husband to death. Her bangles are removed, bindi (dot) wiped off, like in this ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=002AY4cb5uw
Still, better than it used to be. Most of these traditions are disappearing in cities and with new generation. 50% of Indian population is 25 or younger.
As much as I like Indian food, I can’t eat it 3 times a day, every day. All cuisine is vegetarian and chicken. Rarely lamb. All of our meals look like the picture on the left. With no beef anywhere and cows walking everywhere, I want to run up and chew on one for a little. That would be frowned upon by the locals.
Government defines poverty not by income, but by daily calories consumed. Separation of classes is immense. You can see mansions and slums next to each other on one street. Poor are not outraged and wealthy are not compassionate; “they understand and accept their place in life, even if it is not easy to bear, due to their strong belief in karma”. Most middle and upper class households have servant(s) living with them, who clean, cook, wash, shop, iron, etc. Ours (we call him “Buddy”) even shows us magic tricks. Some Westerners see it as exploitation, locasls view it as helping the needy. Like child labor, locals see it as a better alternative to begging or stealing:
What else….. Guys usually hold hands when walking down the street, while couples will never show any signs of affection in public. Kissing was recently allowed in Indian movies. Forget nudity. Driving in India is a whole different topic. Let’s just say driving a bus or a truck is a 2 person job. One turning the wheel, pressing pedals, the other communicating with other drivers and running outside the vehicle to make sure it fits through the streets. All vehicles always honk.
These are some unique aspects of Indian society. Otherwise, the educated youth are just like us – fun, friendly, social and intriguing They have the same interests, problems, goals in life, and don’t poop in the street.
Reposted from http://krakadil.livejournal.com
