The views

Being back in India is quite an experience emotionally. Really, there are some things I see everyday, moves me so much that I have to hold back a bit and take a deep breath. I am not necessarily talking about the poverty, the poor standard of living(in comparison to the western world) and such negative things. It is quite moving to me when I see the little things. The sweet face of a flower girl on the street, the respect people show to our kids, the grin on the doorman's face when we thank him. There some extremely creative people who come up with solutions for their day to problems. There are a lot of crazy little things I witness and surprisingly there is always a darn good reason behind them. The solution may a bit crude - but it works and the reasoning behind it quite convincing.

To give you a simple example - there is a huge pigeon problem in the high rise we live.. ..you should see the different things people have come up with to avoid the bird droppings. Some of the richer folks have built glass enclosures to the balconies, some have simply stopped using their balconies, some have a fishing net covering the whole space, some people like us, with compulsive Googling habit ...have a bunch of flashy CDs dangling from ropes to scare the pigeons.. I have to show off.. the CDs actually work :-) It may be an eye sore... wait a minute.. did I say eye sore.. that is the fun part about being in India.. there is nothing called an eye sore. People are practical and live within their means. People who have lived and traveled to western countries.. think of these little crude solutions as eye sores. But they fail to see the creativity and practicality involved in such solutions. The reality is, people simply cannot afford to be fancy. What an eye-opening experience - if you think of this as "living green". It is amazing the way things are reused, recyled here in India. Will write more on that soon. There are times when I terrible for our way of wasteful living.

It really is super apparent that the problem-solving is more important than the appearance of the solution. This is something that might take us a little time to accept and more so to adapt to. Really, no one cares a hoot about how your stuff looks. Not true for everything.. but for the most part, yes, you can do what you want Without being under the fear of being judged. Life away from conformity. I truly enjoy this freedom of breaking away from the conforming lifestyle. What a contrast from living in America. I am not saying its bad to live in a conforming lifestyle - there are huge benefits in doing so. But, at the same time, there is a such a sense of freedom and interest to everyday tasks and chores here in India. There is not much of a pre-set way of doing things. There is no pressure of doing things a certain way, just because the rest of the country does so. This sense of people doing things their own way is very apparent while you shop, when you see kids play at a park, when you walk the streets, cross a road. Simple example, when you try to walk from point A to point B on any road.. there is no sidewalk.. so people can choose where they want to walk. There is no automatic sense of sticking to the left (assuming people drive on the left... half the country does not drive. so no sense of leftside/rightside) I, of course, being a creature of habit, walk on the right side of the road and stick to the right when someone comes in my way. But this did not quite work.. i was bulldozed by people, dogs,Bicyclists, cows, pigeons, auto rickshaws, puddles and rubble. All these things have their own minds and do their own things. Just accept this and move on. when you find a clear spot on the road in the direction towards point B.. just take step into that spot keep going. Don;t look around, don't ever think the person or thing next to you knows why you are stopping... they simply don't. Just barge in, move forward, and be happy and get to your destination. Some people call this lack of civic sense, I call this survival. Of course this have to slowly change and make it more easy to walk around. The problem is not the people, the problem is the knowledge transfer and infrastructre. When they build a sidewalk, people are not educated on how to use it.

Its not really funny for a lot of people to live in this kind of chaotic city and streets... but to me the solution lies in looking at this as difference and not a problem. The day we stop comparing western life to the way of life here in India.. Life will be so much more peaceful. A lot of people exposed to the western world have expectations and constantly compare their lives. But that is just a waste of time and living life in denial. They have to try an understand why what Dog or cow or puddle is there in the presume wrong spot. When you understand the reasons.. you stop looking at it as being in the wrong spot. It is in fact in the right spot.. considering the situation. Change has to come in a different form.. trying to squeeze the crazy, chaotic life here into a streamline life designed for the western world does not work.

My survival tip: Learn to understand and reason everything out. There is always a good reason for things being done a certain way. People have very complicated lives and priorities are very different. What is obvious and apparent to us is completely off the charts to some one else.