Tryst With Destiny

I held myself back only because of one reason, to understand why things happen a particular way, you need to understand the background behind it as well. To add to it we Indians in general and I in particular had a pre-conceived notion that people and/or things in UK (should) behave in a particular manner. When I experienced stuff which was contrary to these notions I had extreme reactions. They varied from aghast to fascinated, from awestruck to dismayed and from ecstatic to petrified. I took my time to mellow these reactions down and form opinion which are based on comprehensive facts and analysis and not on knee jerk reactions.

UK is a beautiful country. Awesome scenery and mind-blowing infrastructure. Basic infrastructure like roads, water supply and electricity is state of art. Transport works like clock work. These things dawned on me the idea how things should be and leaps of bounds of progress that we need to make. Yet I would tell you one thing I did not come across any particular infrastructure that was new to me. India has its own islands where the infrastructure could compete with UK. Its just that these island are just too few. India needs to make this state of  infrastructure far more prevalent.

The departmental stores are full with stuff from across the world. The progress of the food processing industry in the west is nerve racking. I am pretty sure of one thing that one area that India is ages behind the west is food processing. I had never imagined I could get frozen samosa and bhaji even in India let alone UK or for that matter kidney beans (Rajmah) or chick peas (Chole) already soaked in water. India has a non-existent food processing industry and if you are looking for the next big industry to invest your money then take my word this industry is it.

Speaking of retail shops, one thing that I noticed here is the almost nonchalant attitude towards bags. Indian malls treat every customer as a prospective thief. You cannot carry a bag inside the shops as if the first thing that I would do is put the first thing that I found into the bag. I always found this expectation atrocious and when I saw the freedom here I felt relieved that at least somewhere people have some commonsense left. I am  confidant that this would eventually trickle down to India someday.

The sandwich principle insists that you should place the bad news in between two layers of appreciation. Now that the top layer is prepared, let me start with awful part. Food, if I have to give one word to it then that would be awful. The fact is that Indian taste buds and English food don't mix. Even the Indian food that you get here is an anglicized version of Indian food. To be fare none of this is unexpected or askew, yet it has been tough one month for me when it comes to food. On top of it when you get to the bills it makes a big hole in your pocket. Dining here is EXPENSIVE. Only saving grace is that both of these things make a good combination. Avoid Eating out and you are fine.

This brings me to second thing which I want to crib about. Although the fact that I felt this is a statement on the appalling state of affairs in India. Here manual labour is either not available or very expensive. In India I had never bothered to clean the house, cook the food, iron my clothes. Suddenly I have to do everything. This can be very overwhelming initially. Haircut for 8 pound looked expensive. Although that was till the point I saw the board on the next shop which said 25 GBP for a haircut.

Last thing that I want to crib about is one thing that every Brit loves talking about - weather. Its supposedly  the worst winter in the past 50 years and I have the misfortune of enduring it while I could have been whiling my time in the pleasant streets of Pune. Tough luck.

All things said and done the people here are great and I have fun exchanging banter with them. If only Indians could pick up the British sense of humour our social interaction would enrich substantially. Work culture is just that work culture and not donkey culture, you work for a living and not live to work. In other words you are in office by 8 or 9 and out by 4 or 5. Staying longer is neither expected nor accepted. Day to day life is full of pleasantries and continuous display of manners.