Boon or Bane?

Hmm .. i really wanted to blog about this for a long time. Anyway here goes, since i have had an opportunity to live in america for a while i always compare and contrast living in america and in india. One of the things i really missed when i was away are being with my family. I don't know how to put it.... whenever i spend time with my family it feels great and may be its because i don't think about myself a lot when i am with them. But also one of the reasons i liked living in america was i had plenty of space to sit and contemplate, it's almost a feeling of discovering ones self. When all the noises and voices around you are silent you kinda figure out slowly but surely what you are really like and what you are not, i personally feel nothing teaches you more than your own company. After moving back i often wonder how many indians really get this space.

I mean lets face it India is a country of a billion people, Just to make a decent living you need to be extremely hardworking and diligent and thats just for starters. So if you have to do anything to standout you would need to be that much more industrious, so i often think the concepts of likes, dislikes, passion and interest gets lost to full fill the basics of our human needs to get food clothing and shelter regularly. Often i wonder is it because of this the family system is so much important in india. I mean thats the only easy and direct way of having something to look forward to and keep you occupied in the rat race around you. So the question then becomes would we have a such boasted family system if all our basic needs gets satisfied easily outside of it?.

Also i find people live and die by other's opinions in india. With so of them all around you everybody is ready to share their piece of advice on anything, and most of us including me are affected by what we hear and see around us. Often wonder if most of us just lead a second hand life so that we can appear to be somebody in front of the crowd. The question i have repeatedly is would everybody do what they do today if no one was around them to influence. As i see people at my work , family and friends everybody wants to be somebody, probably more so in india than other countries. Creating this idea of being some one seems to be much more important than living itself. I would think most of them would die rather than to lose their identities they have built about themselves. So if you are india with so many of them around how many different lives would you live? how many of them would you satisfy ? what happens to your own inner voice that gets drowned in all the commotion ? as life itself is a huge paradox ... are the most important things we cherish in our lives.. are they really boons or banes ??????

Bangalore House Hunting

Just about settled in a apartment in Bangalore. So thought I'll share what i went through. Here is the top three things one must avoid if you are looking for a house.

1. Not willing to share i.e No Roomies

2. Being single (apparently its a big deal)

3. Looking for a house by yourself (not going through the middle man).

UN fortunately i was kind of stuck up on these. Lets talk about them.

Room Mates - The general culture around here seems to be to live with a room mate. People often give weird looks when you say you want to live alone. The general day to day activities people do seems to involve another person just naturally. It almost seems like a way of living, but having lived separately for some years i could not come in to terms with it.

Marital Status - This is probably the most important aspect when you are looking for a place. I had to let go so many good houses just because i was a single guy trying to live alone. The general perception is that married folks are more responsible and take good care of the house.While i can understand this perception i thought it was quite ridiculous to have this as a parameter in judging a tenant. The high points were when i would get in to a conversation with the home owners they would say something on the lines of ' I know this is a personal question but when are you planning to get married? ???????????????? ;( '.

Doing your own search - The first few weeks i was just looking for a house by myself . But most often than not all the good houses get filled up immediately in Bangalore because there is such a high demand, and without the middle man you are just lost. Even the classifieds and online advertisements usually give you the contact details of a broker and not a the home owner. So i had to compromise on this one. If you really want to find a good house you gotta worship the middle man.

Any way all said and done i did find a apartment very close to my work. Though its quite big for my needs its a nice one.

So moral of the story unlike America in India its about whom you know and how you work the system.

For My next post - Resident or non resident alien - but where ?

Bangalore First Impressions

After much thought, trepidation and planning i'm at Bangalore. The out sourcing mecca of the world. Here are some of my first impressions.

The city seems to be buzzing all the time. There is moving traffic even at 4 in the morning. The one thing that strikes you momentarily when you reach bangalore is just the number of people around you. Its just a sea of humanity. I don't know if you would feel the same way if you moved from an other city in india. But coming back from a place like tulsa it was just so very evident. I did feel so claustrophobic at times inside my apartment. It almost like being surrounded by a layer of humans and concrete from all ends.

But what surprised me more is just the general attitude of the people here. Everybody seemed to be calm, focused and had a grip on all the madness around them, and with so much activity going around there is abundant people to do all the services/work needed.
In fact there is a boy at the temporary accommodation the company had provided who cooks cleans and takes care of the guests need and every apartment complex has a boy like this. At the work place there is a person allotted to take care of any personal belongings that you might want to leave at the door( just imagine he is like a walking safety locker). So theres just people everywhere to take care of even the mundane of the work.

You walk in to the workplace and the awe continues. But Strangely with so many people around the place sounds eerily quiet. If you close your eyes for a few moments you might think that there is no one around you, but the moment you open your eyes you can see the top of a hundred heads at the same time. I did get some looks for my weird accent now and then but all in all it is a pleasant looking workplace.

Most of all one thing that struck me was india humbles you very easily. You are surrounded by honest hardworking people trying their level best to lead a good life. Be it the boy who works at my apartment, the guy who collects items at the doors or the avp of my team its just a bunch of people trying to make a living doing all they can do. Among all the commotions , the pollution , the traffic jams, the crowds the humility and hard work of people around just shines through. It will make you feel insignificant and humble all at the same time.

For my next post --- House hunting in bangalore.