We, India and Us

I have been in Korea for more than an year now, and we have almost covered all the places of interest, historic or otherwise. These days we are trying to find places out of Seoul and I know that few of us would be interested. I sometimes wonder, that week after week we have trying to explore Korea and its treasures. However sitting perhaps in Delhi normally we would not have carried out such expeditions. Once in a while we do go out but its not a behavior we display every weekend!!

In fact, sometimes I wonder why we do not land up exploring our own country and whats hidden for us to uncover ourselves. In fact our geographical knowledge or intent to know about other states, people and their customs are extremely debatable.

For most North Indians the South means from Madras(Chennai) and perhaps they would not know the difference between the Tamils, Andhraites, Kannadas and Keralites. This would be applicable to the languages they speak, the food they eat, the dress codes and especially how different they are in their own way.

If you start talking about the people from the South it does not get any better. They would not know the difference between the people of Rajasthan and say Uttar Pradesh!!

I come from Bengal, and for us its very simple. The whole of India is classified into a) Bengalis, b) Non Bengalis, c) South Indians. The "b" could now be sub divided based on language and race. The Bengalis are extremely satisfied themselves with this structure and care a damn about the actual situation.

The seven sister states on the extreme eastern side -- some people I am afraid would not be even able to name all of them!! The other day a few colleagues over a drink were discussing NEFA. A knowledgable colleague mentioned with confidence that its a city in Assam!!! To save the sinner, I did not interject to correct that NEFA (North East Frontier Agency) was a Union Territorry and later it was christened into a state(province) named Arunachal Pradesh with Itanagar as its capital!!

On a random basis if I ask the name of the river perhaps passing through Vijayawada to somebody from the North, I am not likely to get a correct response. Similarly perhaps if I quiz somebody from Vijayawada about whats the famous river dissecting Sikkim and then joining the Ganges, the outcome would be the same.

I am not proposing that we should be in a situation where we are know alls but overall I think the situation is far from encouraging. I mean we have all gone to schools and colleges and I guess we have some respect for those institutions and the learnings we have been imparted with.

Coming to manners and behavior I am appalled at the way we think and behave not only in our homeland but also in foreign environments. Being open minded, accepting other cultures is perhaps a big issue with us. This syndrome is true even inside our own country and I don't beleive that three corporate trainings(a trend nowadays) can change the way we think and behave.

My piece is perhaps very negative, and I am sure there would be other people in the world with similar patterns of thought and behavior. But I am not satisfied with that excuse. The worst part is that I am not sure about you too!!! Sphere: Related Content

The Feedback

These days you can monitor what's going on with your blog. Typically you can find out which Post is popular, or what sort of keywords in the search engine lead people to your blog. Adsense even gives you advice on to how probably you can make money on the site!!!

Thats a type of feedback I quite like to get because I know the type of readers and what they are looking for. But fortunately I don't really try to follow the customer satisfaction route here, since this blog was not started as a commercial note and nor did I dare to think that way.

Sometimes some readers do also send in their comments and they vary from positive to negative. I respect their views but sometimes a few can get out of hand because to me there cannot be any discussion when you do not have an open mind nor an eye for the positive.

A lot of people come into my blog due to perhaps an Indian restaurant search but thats about it. They have very specific needs!!! There are some who keep coming back, and I thank them for liking/loving/hating my posts. As long as they come back.

Net net, its good to receive feedback and hope they keep pouring in!! Sphere: Related Content

Some more Integration Limericks

The Banking Integration was done last week
The defects and internet banking still playing hide and seek
All of a sudden The Dream 2000 went to sleep
In the Test Director we are constantly trying to peep
To say Close the Command Centres down, who has got the cheek?

The Customers are transacting a lot on the net
Citiphones too getting a lot of calls you bet
Complaints received are quite a few
Complex threads after all take time to sew
Long hours are forecasted folks, and thats for sure is set.

The Calls are now long and goes on and on
The TDs are coming in by the ton
Its said in Korean and translated into English
Thats becos this is imperative for the local big fish
But then these things are known to happen with integration.

The Internet Banking response was rather slow
This was not the case when the access was rather low
A task force was setup to look into the defect
They needed to come out with a solution for an effect
Finally the RAM was increased and now nobody is raising their eyebrow. Sphere: Related Content

Creativity and Me

My sisters used to laugh when I tried to sing when I was young. Then somewhere in school typically of guys my age, we were fascinated with Indian Film music and we started our sessions during shower time. I found that it was reasonaby acceptable and in later years I am sure that I can produce a decent song with a couple of rehearsals. During our Bengali Festivals I do sing along with the group and sometimes have taken lead too.

My teachers used to complain about my writing skills, but nowadays I maintain this blog, publish a reasonably liked newsletter for "us" in Korea, and I can tell you...its not all that bad.

Taking photopgraphs or creating presentations they say require an artistic bent of mind, but over the years I realise that I have some % of it in me too. I am sure that you have your quota too.

So the idea is, just go and do something. As Nike says, JUST DO IT. Sphere: Related Content

A disturbing event on a Calm Day

Smoke breaks are quite common for some collaeagues of mine and yesterday I happen to accompany them downstairs in front of our Bank entrance. The Parking Lot is also situated there and it has a nice place arranged with a shed et al, where you could smoke, have a cuppa of coffee and generally enjoy the cross breeze.

So we were having this conversation amongs oursleves and there was some occasion for laughter and we were at splits. At the same point of time a person of African features cropped up from somewhere and asked as the reason for our laughter. We ignored him, as it was a) none of his business and b) it was not concerning him or about him.

For some reason he took us as whites (we Indians whites?) and became extremely agitated, where he thought that we were making fun of him!! A preposterous thought all the same and we continued to ignore him, inspite of he blabbering of a mouthful regrading the color of skin and how we were racial, etc, etc.

Like a true Christian (well we are Hindus otherwise) , to save the sinner, we did not retaliate in terms of words nor gestures.

But thats not the important point. I mean we are in standing in downtown Seoul, in a MNC bank porch and I do not believe that we should be subjected to such racial prejudice.

I feel sorry for the guy, and looks like he is always living under a fear of hatred. I am not sure whether he was from the US or otherwise, but looks like for whatever reasons he has lost his mind and will. Sphere: Related Content