IN vs UY - thru my XP

One of my friends @ work wanted some inputs reg my XP of working in IN and UY - the similarities n differences for a paper she is doing.. this is what I shared with her

A) Family first
Respect for family is almost prevalent in both the countries. I have also been to North America and there is a striking difference in how people place and treat families.
Here I do find that like India they do respect their family time and family get togethers and occassions. With a fast pace getting to India due to IT and other developments, people are now struggling to make this value stay back in India, But in UY I do find it deep rooted that it might stay along.
In both countries - parents are taken care in their old age by their children, I find that missing in the americas.

B)Love towards food
This is a very very common thing I found in India and UY , though US might shy away from many varieties of food as it is not a 'healthy' food ;-) or is not made in USA ;-)
Jokes apart India has a wide variety of cuisine and people do love to taste good food and throng good restaurants. Here though UY doesnt have its authentic cuisine as most of the inhabitants are either from Spain or Italy, the love for good food (maily asado) certainly unifies the nation

C)Helpful nature this is another thing that I found common between the countries, the people are very open minded and willing to help. They even go out of their way to help us out - a stranger escorted us till the 'mercado de pescado' in pocitos though he was going for a morning walk in pocitos. I can never imagine somebody from other nations doing it.

Now coming to the differences , just listing a few I came across

A)Non-biased society
I somehow feel that UY society is very unbiased , it doesnt show any difference based on sex,color,creed or nationality. In India sometimes the sexual discrimination is very much evident in some places. For eg the Indian army's infantry wing doesnt allow female officers into its cadre. There are not much Indian females in high positions in the government.This is changing with the new IT enabled growth and social development. With more and more Indian associates travelling to the West, this image is also changing for good.

May be the sex ratio of UY also plays a crucial role in showcasing the country as a equal opportunity employer.Most of the females in rural india are not highly independent, they are happy playing second fiddle to their husbands who is a bread winner. Here I find that most of the ladies are independent and find their own avenue for work.

B)Greetings & PDA
Indian culture is very deep rooted, rich and on top of it conservative. The greetings usually are done from a distance of about 2-3 feet and is not even remotely intimate. Here the kiss on the cheeks irrespective of the sex will not be found in India though an occassional hug between well known friends is not uncommon.
I found it pretty odd initially men kissing men but now am used to it.

Public display of affections like kissing and hugging cannot be found commonly in India, Indians are very conservative in nature and the social laws would be abided by most people.Only in the recent decade have some of the dance clubs have become popular and youth is showing some energy and breaking some shackles (but even this is limited to the metropolitan cities of India).

C) Dating & Weddings
As earlier stated being from a conservative social setup dating so far has not taken any official status ;-) most of the weddings are arranged by parents looking at various attributes ranging from caste, ecomical background, astrological match etc., Modernity has brought some changes in some of the minds of youth who opt for love marriages(meaning they choose their bride.and spend some time before the wedding).this is very unlikely in either UY or US
Also wedding is mostly a one time affair in India and hence divorces are not so common as a widow/widower has a negative social stigma attached to him or her that is not warded off easily.
Premarital sex is also considered taboo

D) Economic Divide
India being the second most populous nation in the world has also has a wide economic divide amongst its different working classes. It can be compared to Brazil in economical divide. This is one of the area that the govt has to work hard to atleast minimize the gap. UY with its very controlled population seems to have it under total control, donot see much of diff between the rich and the poor.

E) Eating Habits
Hinduism that is the major religion prohibits consumption of beef or beef products as cow is worshipped as a god.Many of the castes and subcastes even have strict vegeterian food habits enforced on the followers. Mostly eating habits in India would be a matter of religious beliefs than personal preferences.
Other religions like Islam and Christianity have their own idealogies.


F) Religious Sentiments
This is one important factor in any Indian's life - he is deeprooted to religious sentiments. It governs most of his or her actions. People go to temples, mosques or churches fairly regularly and the feeling is in the blood.There have been riots in the past on religions - which is a bad thing.. that just shows that how people are driven by religious beliefs and the extent of their reach.

G) Stressed & Very competetive
Again as a by product of a larget population, though India is very rich in all natural resources - there seems to be crunch always. The top notch education system produces intellects by the millions every year, leading to cut throat competition to get into the right career paths. This has inturn made the stress levels high in the Indian cosmo soceity (comparable to Bs As , Argentina) and is easily evident in the hurried paces and faces of people living in the metros(Chennai,Delhi,Mumbai & Kolkata). In UY the way of living is very much relaxed and it is evident from the higher %age of happy faces found in a normal distribution

a Q - do you love what you Do ??

I am not an expert in music , though I love to listen to some neither am I after a particular kinda music or a music director or band.. Just pick my flavor as I go.. I have listened to people have a conversation or an argument over a particular guy's music or voice being the best.. somehow i dont have that kind of gyan to be pro or anti in those situations .. so I just listen !

You feel very happy when you do what you love - be it as simple as having a hot filter coffee in your sit out watching the rain ,cracking a new puzzle or driving your bike as fast as it go... Think of a situation where you will get paid for what you love to do ... this discussion came into play after some colleagues and me got lucky to watch a concert by Krishna chakravarthy at Montevideo...

She was so engrossed in weaving the music and the mixed cultural audience was united in the applause that followed - music really has no bounds !! I loved the Tabla along with the Sitar though the tamburu was a bit irritating at times ..I know it carries some significance ;-) Even the most music-ignorant illiterate guy like me applauded the effort that really brought joy to a friday evening......

Sure the group loved what they did and its their profession - I envy all the cricket and soccer players and I am jealous of the Andrew Zimmerns, the Anthony Bourdains .......

somewhere deep in my heart , I do still believe that ..life has more in store for me to make someone jealous of me and my profession ;-) " who knows = dreams may come true" .........