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
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
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" .........
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Life Lesson#4
Conflicts are good and lead to positive outcomes, if both parties are mature enough to respect each other's views...
Rio Day 2 : Christo Redentor n da city tour
got up around 0700 - my bioclock never a min late..freshened up .. found MC & Sri still in their dreamworld.. so went to the chillout lounge - a room with a couple of bean bags and hammocks, rested a while on the hammock.. The best thing about staying in hostels is that you get to interact with a wide varierty of personas from around the globe.. and the best place to start off a conversation is where you have your food or drinks..
The complimentary breakfast consisted of the usual continental stuff, there was one thing that stood out in Brazil - the freshness of the fruits - pineapple, the watermelon and even the orange juice tasted different on the +ve side..
After our breakfast, we headed to the reception and we had a surprise in store - the cute brazilian bluntly said that she couldnt find reservations for the city tour for us.. she was a heart breaker - by looks and deeds ...
we invoked our BCP and after a few financial checks, it was decided to rent a cab for the whole day on our own. The new Fiat adventure along with our friendly driver cum guide were to be our partners all through the city tour.The vehicle was spacious for its looks ..
We started by skimming through the beach roads along copacabana and Ipanema.. the most beautiful beaches I've ever been - the people making it that way.. long legs, sexy bods and great energy !!The cameras were busy in taking census of all the cute chicas on the beach - quick fingers on the button !!
As the sky was clear we started for the corcavado mountain peak through the Tijuca forest which has been put on the world tourist map for being the home of 'Christ the Redeemer' - one of the seven wonders of the world..The drive recreated nostalgic memories of the bus ride through the hairpin bends to my native place..mountainy terrain and dense tree growth ..We also caught a glimpse of the Favela (poor and dangerous neighbourhood) on our way towards the peak..
After a shortwait in the queue we were taken in vans to the top of the peak (700m from msl) where the 38m statue stood with the arms open..will remember the
sight for sometime to come.. The world surely needs a redeemer of this size for sure !The sight was awesome, the Statue towering high and looking down to the city with outstreched arms - it was made of concrete and sandstone. We all were dumbstuck by the enormity of christ and the effort it would've taken to erect it on top of the mountain with an inherent risk of lightning strikes (but god created lightning so why worry ;-)
We could see the other attractions of Rio from top, the Maracana stadium, the race course and pao de azucar. Then the photography session began with all of us scrambling for space between other tourists to find the right angle .. too many ppl on the stage , we had to bring out our flexibility skills in taking pics at all angles including Sri getting his new puma t shirt soiled to get it just right....
Some souvenir shopping and we were back to the van for our return journey .. to the Maracana. I have read about Maracana in a local daily back home in India during world cup soccer and now here I am visiting the place that will play host to the 2014 world cup final ;-)
This stadium can house around 100000 spectators and has a little history etched into it . It was built in 1950 for the world cup, the final between Brazil and Uruguay.The strong Brazilian team fell to the small country 2-1.
We went inside the stadium and the atmosphere airs a feeling of camaraderie, the spirit, the attitude and what not. Most of the walls were lined with posters of all stars that I used to admire from my room back home - on TV.We walked through the hall of fame which had footprints of many famous stars including my all time fav Pele - still rem his signature where the P is shaped like a ball - he lived football !
Walking through the locker rooms , with amenities like bathtubs, a massage room, a warmup area, gym etc makes you wonder - what a life.. play and earn. I know they have their share of tensions@work or rather tensions@play ;-)There was a guy dressed in Brazilian colors doing wonders with the football - great skill. He could keep anything rounded from a small stone to a soccer ball in air for as long as he wanted .. now I know what it takes to don brazilian colors as you got to be the BEST - considering there has been no best practice sharing between Indian cricket selectors and brazilian football selectors
Bidding bye to Maracana we were dead tired as we didnt have lunch due to our financial manager's cost-cutting measures ;-) We moved to Pao de Azucar or Sugar loaf if translated. Those are a couple of mountain peaks by the beach.I just wanted to stroll along the waterfront just making my thoughts wonder on how small the world is - it was enormous when i was at school..as I never thot in my wildest dreams I would visit Brazil ... Our strict finance manager allowed us a small ration of tender coconut and bites of hot churro filled with dulce de leche.
Return back to the hostel we saw some monuments by downtown Rio.We were ready to feed our bellies for the evening - set out to search for some crabs as i have never tasted crab after landing in south america. After a couple of raids, we hit upon one seafood restaurant and they served blue sea crablegs. Had a portion of it and moved to an Arabian restaurant by copacabana beach. It was really nice to have some rice and lamb along with some local brazilian beer.
Hats off to Sri's attitude of just going along with the tide and also ensuring he tastes everthing before commenting. He did like the tasty lamb..Traced our way back to the hostel and the youth gang went for their nite out...I went to the bamboo bar and spent till 0200 sharing thoughts with a backpacker from australia and a guy from germany.. The life they have seen is different and totally interesting.. Someday I wanna do it ..I know with all the strings and the rigid mental setup - it is difficult but the optimistic in me makes me think different - may be someday !!
with all the things going around my life in the personal front this trip was a stress buster.. great company and lovely place.. day 3 follows soon..
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Rio Day 1 : Not really the Rio de ´risk´ janeiro
I had set myself an internal checkpoint of completing my ´hippie trip´to Cabo Polonio and then penning the others.. but the first night stay at Rio makes me break that and write about day1 of this trip today from the hostel I am staying at. Rio was on one of my must visit cities when I landed in LATAM.Earlier had planned to be in this portugese city during the colorful carnaval gala.. but due to constraints at work couldnt make it...Here I am (along with two of my friends from work, Sri and MC) after 2 months of that in the city of Rio De Janeiro, playing host to one of the wonders of the world - Christ the Redeemer...
DAy1: Travel from Montevideo to Rio took us around 02:45 hours and was pretty smooth except for the airport tax fee, you use the airport you pay a fee and that is never included on your ticket when you purchase em.Always add the airport fee for knowing your right expense. Had done some research on rio on the web and 99% of the travel blogs deemed it very unsafe ..so travelled lite - no expensive goodies on me...
Arrived at the Galeão airport on time, thanks to Pluna air.We moved out to the transportation area and MC wanted to avoid taxis not just to avoid the extra$$ (he is our official trip accountant) but to also check the local flavor of the place.We waited for an hour or so for the local bus to arrive. The bus left us at our destination Copacabana..smooth ride and most of the sights on the sides resembled me of a mixed mumbai the old and the new..The place and the people,atleast the males have an Indian touch..are our greatgrandparents to be questioned ;-) ?
Searched the map and took a walk through the streets of Rio to reach our destination , the cool hostel named mellow yellow.I loved the the definitie soothing theme and also the compact arrangements they have put up - a bamboo bar, a spa , a recreation room and a very friendly crowd to help you. We got our room (Named Futebol - you know the brazilians) and beds named as players .. I got a good one Ronaldinho. We are sharing our dorm with a friendly couple from Canada...
After a mini siesta, local exploration brought us to the copacabana beach .. beautiful with the sea and a mountain overlooking it..the sides were dotted with many restaurtans including an arabic one - plan to shell some reals there..The beach walk resembled me of the Chennai Marina beach walks..We had our first tender coconut in latin america on the beach and also tried out the a Brazilian drink called Kaipirinha (cane rum, lemon, sugar and icecubes, think the Brazilian version of Mojito); Rain added a little excitement to the walk midway , managed to reach our hostel little dry..
While travelling ,one of my aims (many dont go with it..) is to taste as much local cuisine as possible.. and here I am in Brazil how can I miss their speciality steakhouses , the Churrascaria. Sri is a born veggie but self brought up as a chickiterian (in every sense of the word chick). He was kind enough to spread his options to all cuts of meat at the churrascaria. Though I used to frequent Fogo De Chao in Minneapolis, some cuts were unique here like the chicken heart, didnt like it much as it had a rubbery feel to it all muscles ...
Friday night ,the most happening place in south america,a good dinner, age & marital status at our side ;-), what else can we three think of ? We headed to our cute receptionist and got one-way tickets to a local ´lapa street party´ which starts at 0030 hours...
To spend some time headed to the bamboo bar and had a couple of drinks - tasted the mellow yellow special one - condensed milk, passion fruit juice and liquer. It was not bad but on a personal front like my alcoholic beverages to be light..Our pickup cab came in by 0040 and we were packed like sardines in the van..most of them were drunk and also carrying to-go packages of their beverages.. the atmosphere inside the cab was crazier when there was a brawl between a couple of guys when somebody made fun of the Irish and it happened one of the ladies was from there.. It got a bit physical but the President of ´society of the drunkards van´ resolved it ;-)
We reached our destination - it was nothing but a street dotted with lots of clubs n pubs n police patrol cars !!! There was lot of activity happening around and we just weaved our way thru the mixed crowd who were enjoying their nite out..all drunk ,doing the samba , the grind and above all the kisses. MC was stunned to find and note that all the grids got filled out when it comes to kissing the normal M-F, the other abnormal ones that too to the extremities..
We walked through some crowded streets and when the alley became narrower and we became aware of the premises ;-) decided to call it a day .. day1 ended with a ride back to the hostel in a wild car. a 'blind' schumi from brazil took the wheel... he took 90 deg turns at 90kmph ;-) what an end to a day.....all of us reached the hostel in one piece by 0300 .. time to hit da bed..
The first nite at Rio was positively eventful.. planning for the city tour today... Relaxing me in every way as there were many things mostly personal troubling me off late but my mind always says to me - this is the only chance u got...
Rio Day 1 : Not really the Rio de ´risk´ janeiro
I had set myself an internal checkpoint of completing my ´hippie trip´to Cabo Polonio and then penning the others.. but the first night stay at Rio makes me break that and write about day1 of this trip today from the hostel I am staying at. Rio was on one of my must visit cities when I landed in LATAM.Earlier had planned to be in this portugese city during the colorful carnaval gala.. but due to constraints at work couldnt make it...Here I am (along with two of my friends from work, Sri and MC) after 2 months of that in the city of Rio De Janeiro, playing host to one of the wonders of the world - Christ the Redeemer...
DAy1: Travel from Montevideo to Rio took us around 02:45 hours and was pretty smooth except for the airport tax fee, you use the airport you pay a fee and that is never included on your ticket when you purchase em.Always add the airport fee for knowing your right expense. Had done some research on rio on the web and 99% of the travel blogs deemed it very unsafe ..so travelled lite - no expensive goodies on me...
Arrived at the Galeão airport on time, thanks to Pluna air.We moved out to the transportation area and MC wanted to avoid taxis not just to avoid the extra$$ (he is our official trip accountant) but to also check the local flavor of the place.We waited for an hour or so for the local bus to arrive. The bus left us at our destination Copacabana..smooth ride and most of the sights on the sides resembled me of a mixed mumbai the old and the new..The place and the people,atleast the males have an Indian touch..are our greatgrandparents to be questioned ;-) ?
Searched the map and took a walk through the streets of Rio to reach our destination , the cool hostel named mellow yellow.I loved the the definitie soothing theme and also the compact arrangements they have put up - a bamboo bar, a spa , a recreation room and a very friendly crowd to help you. We got our room (Named Futebol - you know the brazilians) and beds named as players .. I got a good one Ronaldinho. We are sharing our dorm with a friendly couple from Canada...
After a mini siesta, local exploration brought us to the copacabana beach .. beautiful with the sea and a mountain overlooking it..the sides were dotted with many restaurtans including an arabic one - plan to shell some reals there..The beach walk resembled me of the Chennai Marina beach walks..We had our first tender coconut in latin america on the beach and also tried out the a Brazilian drink called Kaipirinha (cane rum, lemon, sugar and icecubes, think the Brazilian version of Mojito); Rain added a little excitement to the walk midway , managed to reach our hostel little dry..
While travelling ,one of my aims (many dont go with it..) is to taste as much local cuisine as possible.. and here I am in Brazil how can I miss their speciality steakhouses , the Churrascaria. Sri is a born veggie but self brought up as a chickiterian (in every sense of the word chick). He was kind enough to spread his options to all cuts of meat at the churrascaria. Though I used to frequent Fogo De Chao in Minneapolis, some cuts were unique here like the chicken heart, didnt like it much as it had a rubbery feel to it all muscles ...
Friday night ,the most happening place in south america,a good dinner, age & marital status at our side ;-), what else can we three think of ? We headed to our cute receptionist and got one-way tickets to a local ´lapa street party´ which starts at 0030 hours...
To spend some time headed to the bamboo bar and had a couple of drinks - tasted the mellow yellow special one - condensed milk, passion fruit juice and liquer. It was not bad but on a personal front like my alcoholic beverages to be light..Our pickup cab came in by 0040 and we were packed like sardines in the van..most of them were drunk and also carrying to-go packages of their beverages.. the atmosphere inside the cab was crazier when there was a brawl between a couple of guys when somebody made fun of the Irish and it happened one of the ladies was from there.. It got a bit physical but the President of ´society of the drunkards van´ resolved it ;-)
We reached our destination - it was nothing but a street dotted with lots of clubs n pubs n police patrol cars !!! There was lot of activity happening around and we just weaved our way thru the mixed crowd who were enjoying their nite out..all drunk ,doing the samba , the grind and above all the kisses. MC was stunned to find and note that all the grids got filled out when it comes to kissing the normal M-F, the other abnormal ones that too to the extremities..
We walked through some crowded streets and when the alley became narrower and we became aware of the premises ;-) decided to call it a day .. waved a taxi and landed in our own dorm by 0300 .. time to hit da bed..
The first nite at Rio was positively eventful.. planning for the city tour today... Relaxing me in every way as there were many things mostly personal troubling me off late but my mind always says to me - this is the only chance u got...
DAy1: Travel from Montevideo to Rio took us around 02:45 hours and was pretty smooth except for the airport tax fee, you use the airport you pay a fee and that is never included on your ticket when you purchase em.Always add the airport fee for knowing your right expense. Had done some research on rio on the web and 99% of the travel blogs deemed it very unsafe ..so travelled lite - no expensive goodies on me...
Arrived at the Galeão airport on time, thanks to Pluna air.We moved out to the transportation area and MC wanted to avoid taxis not just to avoid the extra$$ (he is our official trip accountant) but to also check the local flavor of the place.We waited for an hour or so for the local bus to arrive. The bus left us at our destination Copacabana..smooth ride and most of the sights on the sides resembled me of a mixed mumbai the old and the new..The place and the people,atleast the males have an Indian touch..are our greatgrandparents to be questioned ;-) ?
Searched the map and took a walk through the streets of Rio to reach our destination , the cool hostel named mellow yellow.I loved the the definitie soothing theme and also the compact arrangements they have put up - a bamboo bar, a spa , a recreation room and a very friendly crowd to help you. We got our room (Named Futebol - you know the brazilians) and beds named as players .. I got a good one Ronaldinho. We are sharing our dorm with a friendly couple from Canada...
After a mini siesta, local exploration brought us to the copacabana beach .. beautiful with the sea and a mountain overlooking it..the sides were dotted with many restaurtans including an arabic one - plan to shell some reals there..The beach walk resembled me of the Chennai Marina beach walks..We had our first tender coconut in latin america on the beach and also tried out the a Brazilian drink called Kaipirinha (cane rum, lemon, sugar and icecubes, think the Brazilian version of Mojito); Rain added a little excitement to the walk midway , managed to reach our hostel little dry..
While travelling ,one of my aims (many dont go with it..) is to taste as much local cuisine as possible.. and here I am in Brazil how can I miss their speciality steakhouses , the Churrascaria. Sri is a born veggie but self brought up as a chickiterian (in every sense of the word chick). He was kind enough to spread his options to all cuts of meat at the churrascaria. Though I used to frequent Fogo De Chao in Minneapolis, some cuts were unique here like the chicken heart, didnt like it much as it had a rubbery feel to it all muscles ...
Friday night ,the most happening place in south america,a good dinner, age & marital status at our side ;-), what else can we three think of ? We headed to our cute receptionist and got one-way tickets to a local ´lapa street party´ which starts at 0030 hours...
To spend some time headed to the bamboo bar and had a couple of drinks - tasted the mellow yellow special one - condensed milk, passion fruit juice and liquer. It was not bad but on a personal front like my alcoholic beverages to be light..Our pickup cab came in by 0040 and we were packed like sardines in the van..most of them were drunk and also carrying to-go packages of their beverages.. the atmosphere inside the cab was crazier when there was a brawl between a couple of guys when somebody made fun of the Irish and it happened one of the ladies was from there.. It got a bit physical but the President of ´society of the drunkards van´ resolved it ;-)
We reached our destination - it was nothing but a street dotted with lots of clubs n pubs n police patrol cars !!! There was lot of activity happening around and we just weaved our way thru the mixed crowd who were enjoying their nite out..all drunk ,doing the samba , the grind and above all the kisses. MC was stunned to find and note that all the grids got filled out when it comes to kissing the normal M-F, the other abnormal ones that too to the extremities..
We walked through some crowded streets and when the alley became narrower and we became aware of the premises ;-) decided to call it a day .. waved a taxi and landed in our own dorm by 0300 .. time to hit da bed..
The first nite at Rio was positively eventful.. planning for the city tour today... Relaxing me in every way as there were many things mostly personal troubling me off late but my mind always says to me - this is the only chance u got...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
