Hey, Whaddup?
I don't actually have anything to say.. like my brain is fairly numb and not whizzing like it usually is. There's obviously too much lead in the air. And thats probably the reason why i scored so shit in the exams last time. The thing is that, by now, the desire to bring to your notice the extreme differences in the societies, is having an overwhelming competition with my other significant attribute. Laziness. And the latter is winning hands down. ( part of the reason bein that its like too lazy to do a hands up right? cuz like its lazy)
The deal is simply that, its a young society ( not in age or wisdom and that kinda stuff, but in exposure to things like multinational food industries, fashion industries, eating out routines, tall buildings - read on for proof - and other such stuff). So I didn't really express any shock at the fact that a guy who wanted to use the lift in a building, pressed the up arrow even though he wanted to go down. And when I asked him why, he said that since the lift was on a lower floor, it needed to come up. I pressed the down arrow, and pointed out that, those arrows represented the direction in which we wanted to go. Another guy pressed the up arrow again in front of me, and on hearing my explanation, looked at me as if somethin was wrong with me for not bein aware of such a basic fact as that "we press the arrow to direct the lift towards us." And then I pointed out that, if you notice, on the top floor, there is only a down button, when by their logic, there should have been only the up button. Now I'm very careful while pointin out stuff like this to them, cuz well, they aren't aware and I don't wanna come accross as highhanded or snobbish bout superficial stuff like this. But maybe, he did see the logic. Then again, a few days back, we had gone to a restaurant in this hotel( pronounced as ho-tal) that served indian, chinese, and continatal food. When I had generally mentioned to some of the kids, bout how, salt is always served in the small thingy with the lesser no. of holes, and pepper in the one with more no. of holes, they had asked, what if it wasnt? ( I didn know what to say to that. Like really)
The low exposure to this also makes them susceptible to bein taken for a ride. The people at the ho-tal had kept a voluntary tip of 50 bucks, whereas in India, the tip is a part of the diner's prerogative, not somethin you demand. Not to mention, they don't really expect them from students anyway. Dominoes delivered to me a veggie pizza (ie onion and capsicum) instead of the jalapeno(whose pronounciation itself would be a challenge here) and pineapple one as i had asked. But they were decent enough to replace it within half an hour, which was a pleasant reinforcement of my affinity for them, cuz in a city like Kota, the seller is so empowered, that he can adopt a take it or leave it attitude without having to fear customer fall out. And Dominoes is the only thing close to that here neway. But the Dominoes delivery guy(who are locals) asked for a tip. And it was somethin of a demand like, "you probably don't know, but you have to tip the guy in all these hi-fi brands". The very concept of a free home delivery states, that all that has been accounted for. Whats even more surprising, is that Mc Donald's, whose prices were always inclusive of taxes, here charges VAT on top of the menu prices. When I asked that weren't McD's prices always inclusive of taxes, the girl at the counted said No. I reframed it as a statement, and said, I know so, to which she simply said she didn't know.
Now, I maybe digressing a bit, but it comes from the uncle standin behind me in the queue at McD's. I have personally observed that as Indians, we tend to hide our surprise/incredulity or ignorance, even when faced with a brand new situation. I mean, when Criss Angel or David Blaine, do magic tricks with their American spectators, the reactions are that of incredulity, like OMG how in the world did he do THAT!!! You see somethin similar like P.C. Sarkar's magic in India, and we go like, "Ah, interesting." ( Althought, that might have somethin to do with P.C. Sarkar, lackin a personality, and coming off at best as a wannabe. And maybe the presence of gurus and saints who climb standing ropes in the country, causin us to have a greater acceptance of things that lie outside our comprehension-we are a part of an almost magical land after all.)
But along with that, there is also the thing bout not showin weakness or the complete lack of acquaintance with a situation of basically admittin that you are new to somethin, and therefore inexperienced. And now, I see why that is.
Here, its part of the language that everybody speaks. The unspoken rules of living. Cuz one of the basic rules of introduction here, is a show of strength( I suppose that rule is visible in a lot of other scenarios too, its probably just my limited exposure that has kept it veiled.) The reason its so, is that for access to pretty much the same everyday things, a greater effort is required here. Sellers are judging your importance on how much noise you're making. The cycle guy will swindle y0u into buying crap(they did me.), if they realise you don't understand this survival language. My own rare show of aggression with him was met by a free pedal for the one that had broken off within a month of buyin my cycle. (its not new.) But I suck at it obviously, (I dun actually get angry. I have to pretend, n i'm not very good at it really) and the second time i pretended to get angry, nothin came of it. I jus had to walk out of there cursing them. Badly serving waiters suddenly take a bit of notice, when you shout. You could be as patient as you want, but they won't notice n come to your rescue of their own accord. Because the basic difference is that in Delhi and other metros, the consumer has lots of money to offer. And there are many takers for that money, and therefore a lot of market competiton. The large market competition is empowerin for the consumers, and keeps the sellers on their toes and offerin customer satisfaction. But here, the seller is empowered. A few people control the market. In the end, the customer can't afford to lose the seller just as much. Infact, the market for the seller comes from the large no. of buyers, as its a smaller wealth distributed in a larger population, so if one or two go away, it doesn't really matter. Due to this, even the normal dealings have to be done with more aggression on the customer's part, and without allowing the seller to notice any hesitancy or unsurity. (Cuz any sign of that will be pounced upon by people)
As a result, all their dealings with people are that. This show of strength has a very " I deal with this shit lots, so don't be foolish enough to try to pull somethin on me" tone, and that projection has to be there whether or not they do know the stuff.
Which brings me to the uncle in the queue at McD's. So he was askin whats wrong with the girl at the counter, cuz the queue hadn't been moving. (Except his tone. There was a rather interestin example in a psychology book once bout inferiority complex: While pointin out people's various responses to intimidation, it talked bout how a mother took her 3 children to the zoo. On seeing the big lion, the first child stepped forward, and spat at the lion, showin his superiority to the beast. The second stepped forward and said to the lion, "I'm not afraid of you." and stood with his arms on his waist, keeping himself at power with the lion and the third hid behind his mother sayin, he's scared. Uncle, was child no. 1) His voice was etched with awareness of bein present in a multinational chain outlet, and also with the effort to hide that incredulity, and maybe top it off with a bit of anger and arrogance, as to why his hard-to-pronounce order was takin so long. So somethin as simple as why is it takin so long for the queue to move was said rather crudely and aggressively( with the said " i deal with..." tone).
Whats interestin to note is that there is almost an entire masculine energy that kinda pervades the whole society. I mean sure they are rude, crude, unreasonable, and with violent tendencies, lookin for reasons to fight, high on ego and unlikely to accept faults or show humilitym yet there is an inherent positivity. Its only too clearly visible, that if you may genuinely need help, they will go out of the way to give it, and without realising they did. While the intentions are far from sinister, its just that the means are infantile and questionable.
On the other hand, our society is more well balanced in terms of feminine energy. Which is what kinda brings sophistication, aestheticism, courtesy, respect, humility, introspection to it, yet it is overtly individualistic, and in that respect, very often selfish. You have subtle dirty mind games, back bitchin and the likes, somethin thats almost absent in the previous.
Its like the male energy is like fire. Its lively, crackling, gives heat, light, protects against wild beasts, yet, if there's too much of it, it starts to burn and destroy.
Whereas the female energy is like water, its calmer, flexible, life giving, relaxin but its killing will be more sinister, in the way you die through cold and you were probably jus goin for a harmless sleep in the biting cold, or hypothermia, where you hallucinate, and aren't even aware of your proximity to death.
With fire you tend to be alert. The danger is spelt out(but existent at all times). With water, its not.
Anyway, in the end what we need to seek is a balance, the hybrid of the victorian-overtly-aware-of-the-smoothness-of-the-butter-in-your-muffin type and this look-at-my-muscals-type society. In the end, we need a better sex ratio, and more education, development.
Ps- dun believe me next time i start nethin with, i dun have much to say. :P
DISCLAIMER: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS POST ARE NO LONGER HELD BY ME. It was largely a desperate attempt to find virtues in a sea of widely apparent vices. Even these guys bitch and talk crap bout anyone n everyone (often more out of idle tongues, than deep grudges.) Ah wel.
I don't actually have anything to say.. like my brain is fairly numb and not whizzing like it usually is. There's obviously too much lead in the air. And thats probably the reason why i scored so shit in the exams last time. The thing is that, by now, the desire to bring to your notice the extreme differences in the societies, is having an overwhelming competition with my other significant attribute. Laziness. And the latter is winning hands down. ( part of the reason bein that its like too lazy to do a hands up right? cuz like its lazy)
The deal is simply that, its a young society ( not in age or wisdom and that kinda stuff, but in exposure to things like multinational food industries, fashion industries, eating out routines, tall buildings - read on for proof - and other such stuff). So I didn't really express any shock at the fact that a guy who wanted to use the lift in a building, pressed the up arrow even though he wanted to go down. And when I asked him why, he said that since the lift was on a lower floor, it needed to come up. I pressed the down arrow, and pointed out that, those arrows represented the direction in which we wanted to go. Another guy pressed the up arrow again in front of me, and on hearing my explanation, looked at me as if somethin was wrong with me for not bein aware of such a basic fact as that "we press the arrow to direct the lift towards us." And then I pointed out that, if you notice, on the top floor, there is only a down button, when by their logic, there should have been only the up button. Now I'm very careful while pointin out stuff like this to them, cuz well, they aren't aware and I don't wanna come accross as highhanded or snobbish bout superficial stuff like this. But maybe, he did see the logic. Then again, a few days back, we had gone to a restaurant in this hotel( pronounced as ho-tal) that served indian, chinese, and continatal food. When I had generally mentioned to some of the kids, bout how, salt is always served in the small thingy with the lesser no. of holes, and pepper in the one with more no. of holes, they had asked, what if it wasnt? ( I didn know what to say to that. Like really)
The low exposure to this also makes them susceptible to bein taken for a ride. The people at the ho-tal had kept a voluntary tip of 50 bucks, whereas in India, the tip is a part of the diner's prerogative, not somethin you demand. Not to mention, they don't really expect them from students anyway. Dominoes delivered to me a veggie pizza (ie onion and capsicum) instead of the jalapeno(whose pronounciation itself would be a challenge here) and pineapple one as i had asked. But they were decent enough to replace it within half an hour, which was a pleasant reinforcement of my affinity for them, cuz in a city like Kota, the seller is so empowered, that he can adopt a take it or leave it attitude without having to fear customer fall out. And Dominoes is the only thing close to that here neway. But the Dominoes delivery guy(who are locals) asked for a tip. And it was somethin of a demand like, "you probably don't know, but you have to tip the guy in all these hi-fi brands". The very concept of a free home delivery states, that all that has been accounted for. Whats even more surprising, is that Mc Donald's, whose prices were always inclusive of taxes, here charges VAT on top of the menu prices. When I asked that weren't McD's prices always inclusive of taxes, the girl at the counted said No. I reframed it as a statement, and said, I know so, to which she simply said she didn't know.
Now, I maybe digressing a bit, but it comes from the uncle standin behind me in the queue at McD's. I have personally observed that as Indians, we tend to hide our surprise/incredulity or ignorance, even when faced with a brand new situation. I mean, when Criss Angel or David Blaine, do magic tricks with their American spectators, the reactions are that of incredulity, like OMG how in the world did he do THAT!!! You see somethin similar like P.C. Sarkar's magic in India, and we go like, "Ah, interesting." ( Althought, that might have somethin to do with P.C. Sarkar, lackin a personality, and coming off at best as a wannabe. And maybe the presence of gurus and saints who climb standing ropes in the country, causin us to have a greater acceptance of things that lie outside our comprehension-we are a part of an almost magical land after all.)
But along with that, there is also the thing bout not showin weakness or the complete lack of acquaintance with a situation of basically admittin that you are new to somethin, and therefore inexperienced. And now, I see why that is.
Here, its part of the language that everybody speaks. The unspoken rules of living. Cuz one of the basic rules of introduction here, is a show of strength( I suppose that rule is visible in a lot of other scenarios too, its probably just my limited exposure that has kept it veiled.) The reason its so, is that for access to pretty much the same everyday things, a greater effort is required here. Sellers are judging your importance on how much noise you're making. The cycle guy will swindle y0u into buying crap(they did me.), if they realise you don't understand this survival language. My own rare show of aggression with him was met by a free pedal for the one that had broken off within a month of buyin my cycle. (its not new.) But I suck at it obviously, (I dun actually get angry. I have to pretend, n i'm not very good at it really) and the second time i pretended to get angry, nothin came of it. I jus had to walk out of there cursing them. Badly serving waiters suddenly take a bit of notice, when you shout. You could be as patient as you want, but they won't notice n come to your rescue of their own accord. Because the basic difference is that in Delhi and other metros, the consumer has lots of money to offer. And there are many takers for that money, and therefore a lot of market competiton. The large market competition is empowerin for the consumers, and keeps the sellers on their toes and offerin customer satisfaction. But here, the seller is empowered. A few people control the market. In the end, the customer can't afford to lose the seller just as much. Infact, the market for the seller comes from the large no. of buyers, as its a smaller wealth distributed in a larger population, so if one or two go away, it doesn't really matter. Due to this, even the normal dealings have to be done with more aggression on the customer's part, and without allowing the seller to notice any hesitancy or unsurity. (Cuz any sign of that will be pounced upon by people)
As a result, all their dealings with people are that. This show of strength has a very " I deal with this shit lots, so don't be foolish enough to try to pull somethin on me" tone, and that projection has to be there whether or not they do know the stuff.
Which brings me to the uncle in the queue at McD's. So he was askin whats wrong with the girl at the counter, cuz the queue hadn't been moving. (Except his tone. There was a rather interestin example in a psychology book once bout inferiority complex: While pointin out people's various responses to intimidation, it talked bout how a mother took her 3 children to the zoo. On seeing the big lion, the first child stepped forward, and spat at the lion, showin his superiority to the beast. The second stepped forward and said to the lion, "I'm not afraid of you." and stood with his arms on his waist, keeping himself at power with the lion and the third hid behind his mother sayin, he's scared. Uncle, was child no. 1) His voice was etched with awareness of bein present in a multinational chain outlet, and also with the effort to hide that incredulity, and maybe top it off with a bit of anger and arrogance, as to why his hard-to-pronounce order was takin so long. So somethin as simple as why is it takin so long for the queue to move was said rather crudely and aggressively( with the said " i deal with..." tone).
Whats interestin to note is that there is almost an entire masculine energy that kinda pervades the whole society. I mean sure they are rude, crude, unreasonable, and with violent tendencies, lookin for reasons to fight, high on ego and unlikely to accept faults or show humilitym yet there is an inherent positivity. Its only too clearly visible, that if you may genuinely need help, they will go out of the way to give it, and without realising they did. While the intentions are far from sinister, its just that the means are infantile and questionable.
On the other hand, our society is more well balanced in terms of feminine energy. Which is what kinda brings sophistication, aestheticism, courtesy, respect, humility, introspection to it, yet it is overtly individualistic, and in that respect, very often selfish. You have subtle dirty mind games, back bitchin and the likes, somethin thats almost absent in the previous.
Its like the male energy is like fire. Its lively, crackling, gives heat, light, protects against wild beasts, yet, if there's too much of it, it starts to burn and destroy.
Whereas the female energy is like water, its calmer, flexible, life giving, relaxin but its killing will be more sinister, in the way you die through cold and you were probably jus goin for a harmless sleep in the biting cold, or hypothermia, where you hallucinate, and aren't even aware of your proximity to death.
With fire you tend to be alert. The danger is spelt out(but existent at all times). With water, its not.
Anyway, in the end what we need to seek is a balance, the hybrid of the victorian-overtly-aware-of-the-smoothness-of-the-butter-in-your-muffin type and this look-at-my-muscals-type society. In the end, we need a better sex ratio, and more education, development.
Ps- dun believe me next time i start nethin with, i dun have much to say. :P
DISCLAIMER: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS POST ARE NO LONGER HELD BY ME. It was largely a desperate attempt to find virtues in a sea of widely apparent vices. Even these guys bitch and talk crap bout anyone n everyone (often more out of idle tongues, than deep grudges.) Ah wel.
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