The subtle surprises from a foreign land

I write this blog as I am about 25000 ft up in the air, crossing over the Atlantic Ocean to reach Brussels.  I wish to start this blog with a disclaimer. I have no pro or anti American/Indian feelings. What you will read below would be simple observations of a traveler who is trying to keep herself engaged as she is on her long journey back home.

As I sit here up in midair, I am trying to reflect on the last 5 months I have spent at the Uncle Sam’s nation. Mid-air is indeed a nice place for such miscellaneous thoughts!!:P My first journey to this place was quite adventurous. Everything that could go wrong for a passenger went wrong for me, except that the flight didn’t crash. So, this time I am pretty chilled out about my really long trip. So, here I go blogging!

As I allow my thoughts to roam freely, I subconsciously begin to compare my experience in this country with that at my real home – India. As the thoughts flow, I start to divide my observations into three categories – geography, people and infrastructure.

The first distinct feature about Uncle Sam’s land that caught my attention was the amount of planning that seems to have gone into building the cities in the way they look today. In last 5 months, I have visited 3 cities in this country, each very different from the other. For example, an aerial view of Pittsburgh would show that the entire city is like a mountain plane with greenery everywhere. She is a beauty to watch irrespective of the seasons. An aerial view of Boston would give you the feeling of viewing an ancient city uniformly color-coded with red and brown bricks. Similarly, in DC, the landscape is more or less white/light colored, but vastly spread. Contrastingly, the aerial view of Newark will show you that the city, on one side of the river, has small uniformly designed pretty houses with color-coded roads curling around them. On the other side, you will notice tall skyscrapers wanting to grow taller and reach the clouds.

Somehow, I am not sure if could say the same about the urban planning of our cities. Well, somewhere it hurts! When I started working, I travelled by air more frequently than ever. I have noticed that every time I look at Chennai from a few thousand feet above, all I could see would be slums with sewage water running around. Once, the pilot took us on a round about route and I got to see the aerial view of the ocean. Well, she was a beauty, but not until the plane dropped a few feet to land, when the slums became clearly visible. The same was the case with Mumbai as well.

Secondly, I also noticed that roads and streets in the US are so well labeled that even a new comer to the city can figure out his way with lesser difficulty. But, is the same possible back home? Well, you can always argue that GPS can help. True, indeed!!

But, how the hell will I find a ‘Karumari amman nagar’ in ‘Velachery’, when I don’t see it labeled properly anywhere in records. Even a GPS or a Google earth wouldn’t know if such a place exists.

So, this brings me to asking two simple, but important questions.

·       Is it really too much for us to expect our government to provide a systematic urban planning for atleast the major cities (if not all) in the country?

·       Why is urban planning not a priority in our electoral mandates?

 

You are probably thinking why am I making such a big deal out of small issues, when there are bigger things to worry about in a country where more than a billion live. Well, in that case, my question to you would be, when we don’t have the will to tackle the basic issues, why would we have the will to resolve the complex ones?

With that question in mind, let me now take a slight detour from geographical differences to differences in people and their perspectives. Here, I wish to share a conversation I had with an American woman at my workplace.

Woman: You know what, 90% of Americans do not know what kind of a country India really is. What is it like?

Me       :  Well, we call it unity in diversity. Every state in the country has a different language and a way of living. Each state also has its own unique history. Hence, the tourism experience is very different form state to state. People migrate from one state to another for better job opportunities or living styles. So, even as kids, we get the experience of accepting differences.  This way, we are also blessed with different choices. So, life is always exciting with these differences.

Women: Oh! That’s exciting to hear. In the United States, we speak more or less the same language everywhere and the living style form east to west is not so vastly different. But, I hear India is not a safe place for women. I recently saw what happened in New Delhi and was horrified.

Me      : (To myself) Slap on the face! For all the build up I give about my country, this is what I get to hear!

When I heard that statement, I was upset, angry and frustrated. India may have achieved laurels in various fields. No doubt! But, again we seem to be missing the buck on a basic expectation – safety and security. I agree that there are so many unsafe nations in this world. But, I don’t think we would want to set those nations as benchmark for us. That pops another question in my head.

What good does it do if India launches another Chandrayaan to the Moon, but continues to maintain the notorious record of an average of one women getting raped everyday? 

Finally, I take one last detour to infrastructure. One distinct change I have noticed in some of my close friends, cousins, my own brother and above all my better-half is that, they are more conscious about their health and physique when they are here as students as compared to being back home. As I rattle my thoughts about it, I think it could perhaps be because of the infrastructure and facilities offered to pursue sports at most universities here. These facilities seem so intertwined with the student culture that sports seem to be a part and parcel of the living style. As the spouse of a Grad student, I am entitled to these facilities as well. In the last few months, I have tried my hands on squash, racket-ball, swimming, running and biking. None of these, I have bothered to try back home. Really wonder why? This is a very small example of how better infrastructure can pave way for a better living.

People do play sports in India. But, how many of us play just to enjoy or have fun? We’d rather play if we would want to make a career of it. Contrastingly, here, people play not to win anything but just for the sheer fun of it. It is that love which is probably making a lot of people above 60 years of age here to run on a 10 K marathon regularly.

What is more interesting to observe here is that, people using the infrastructure also take the onus of maintaining it well.

 Our Indian Govt has invested tones of money in public infrastructure in the recent past. But, the question is, how many of us using it bother to maintain it properly. The metro project in Chennai is one of the wisest investments by the Government. But, some of these metro stations are poorly maintained with people spitting and littering everywhere. I have always wondered - Do people really need a law that will make them develop common sense? What sort of an era are we living in?

In this blog I have raised a lot of questions. For most of them, the answers are already known. The question still is, what are we doing about them?

As I sign off, I am going to think about these questions? I hope these make you think as well!

Adios!!!