CULTURE SHOCKS I FACED – ANECDOTES

I hail from a town in Andhra Pradesh, which is a district headquarter, but nowhere near the size of a city. I have done my schooling in this town and later moved to Hyderabad for my engineering where I had my share of cultural shocks.

Albeit the capital of AP and a place I frequently used to visit, I did see some new facets of the city when living there. The most striking features I noticed are the ease with which the Hindu and Muslim communities coexisted, which is a desirable feature and the indifference of the city, which I found very hard to digest.

One shocking incident that I remember too well is when a person on a bike slipped and fell on the road while I was waiting at a bus stop. It was a crowded place with lots of people just standing about and watching the fun. The guy who fell down was dazed a bit though he wasn’t hurt and had to bring himself together before he picked his bike up and rode away.

I found this in sharp contrast with the culture back home, where four to five people used to help me out even when I tripped from a bicycle. And where one or two phone calls were made to my father that I was seen driving fast later when I had a scooty.

Delhi, the huge metropolitan, where I had moved for my MBA at IIFT had more surprises in store for me. The major problem I faced was my inability to speak Hindi. I used to feel isolated in the mess, at the badminton court and sometimes even in the class when some professors used Hindi occasionally. I found the food a relatively bland. My mental blockages about north Indians being different also augmented the problem.

I found driving on the streets rash and that certain courtesies I used to take for granted aren’t there anymore. All these along with well-intentioned suggestions like “Don’t step out after dark”, “Don’t go for walks in Sanjay Van in the evenings even with friends”. It was a bit difficult since I come from a town where eve-teasing is almost non existent and its deemed safe, relatively at least.

I also found several of the north Indian guys to be condescending and with a general opinion that girls are inferior to them. This opinion is only reinforced when I was traveling in Punjab and UP along with rest of India for my summer project. I realized that this is due to the fact that in most of the families into business, male child is given very obvious preferential treatment, which is not very common in the South.

My roomies, both Delhiites, however, helped me adjust to the place and I started seeing the positive aspects of the city such as its flexibility, the way in which different cultures meet and coexist. Not only do they coexist, but they annihilate each other, merging into one common entity called the “Delhi Culture”, much the same way people living in Bombay are no longer Tamilians or Gujaratis, but are “Bombayyas”.

I also realized that most of the differences are only with regard to superficial aspects and deep down everyone is same (Might apply only to Indians not other country nationals). Once you get to know a person very well, the differences recognized are only due to the personality traits and not due to culture at all. I propose to examine this hypothesis very soon as I am availing of the exchange program to Finland. The Finns might as well turn out to be basically the same!!