Achieving a Zen state, amidst the clutter called India - my first 30 days
Almost a decade ago, June 17, 2005, exactly 30 days after I moved in to Singapore, I wrote about my settling-in titled Singapore – Can Lah. I had also written My India! on that very day.
Today, September 14, 2014, a month after we moved back to India, a decade later, here I am penning my first one month here. Apart from crisscrossing Bangalore, there was rail-journey to Chennai an 1800km drive on a Goa trip in this one month.
For a start, the core of My India! has not changed. It is the same country that I left a decade ago. I am going to highlight my six observations in this one month which may well be the change in perspective.
Corruption is over-rated: Well, I will talk of the only few experiences that I have had in the Government. I had heard a lot of cacophony about this outside India and I have still not experienced any (touchwood). There is that sense of (slow) speed, that I may not agree with, but by-and-large, clerks and officers were friendly and helpful. In my humble view, I think we citizens use systemic corruption as a punch-bag to hide our own degrading personal and societal value systems. Yes, corruption exists in the minds of people.
Discipline and Responsibility are best left to the Creator: Discipline? Being Responsible? What does that even mean? They are not a norm, and so be it. I wonder why we would even want to pain ourselves with discipline. It is best to go-with-the-flow. I am coming to terms with that many may not be held responsible as well. At a meta-physical level, as in the cosmic roll of dice, everything occurrence in this universe is a random probability. Or as most Indians phrase it, it is fate or destiny. And if God is responsible for making things happen and he is the one who maintains checks and balances, why should we live in the illusion that it is our responsibility and discipline that will change the world?
Everything is possible and miracles happen: Yes, you can get telephone or broadband in one day, admission into the school of your choice, clear your 20 foot container in a single day without paying a bribe, drive on the wrong side of the road and not meet with accident, have an electrician land up in 15 minutes after a call and the same person can prune that tree, unload a truck or clean the roof-top. All you needs is one or more of these– Money, Patience or Luck.
Extreme High Energy in people: The energy in people is just as high as it always and infectious. So is the highly inefficient use of that energy. How else would you explain 99 inbound calls from 24 people to just sell one $20 4G LTE connection? All I filled in on the Airtel website at 3am that was that I is interested in a home-broadband. Well obviously you have a choice to feel like a King, or be annoyed. I chose neither. I was observing the moment. 99 calls (6 visits to my house) just sell one $20 4G LTE connection is a lot of energy in the country and it is immense loss of productivity as well.
Inefficiency is good for GDP: Earlier, I would complain of inefficiency. But now I guess I am wiser to understand that such inefficiencies are built by purpose in Government and Private sector, by a repairman, by a auto-driver or a maid so that in so that the parallel economy runs well. Inefficiencies are the heart of GDP. In case of the above 4G LTE, imagine all the 99 calls + 6 visits and all the expenses towards that add to the GDP of the nation. It is very similar with domestic helps – what could be done by one in 4 hours by one Filipino worker in Singapore takes us 3 maids, 6 sessions to get the job done half-well? But then again as long as it is the norm, who is complaining?
Time is just an abstract concept, why fret? Yes, Time (IST) is just another number on the number line, better still it is an abstract concept. In Singapore, I was used to commitments like 27 minutes or meeting someone at 8:32. Here, in India we segment Time into nice larger chunks. ‘Come over for Lunch’ means somewhere between 11:30a-4:00pm or meet me after lunch means between 1230-530p. ‘I will meet you this week’, ‘You will receive this soon’ without any other commitment is just okay. Yes, really okay? I love this concept. Yes, and time also is just a concept. Why fret unnecessarily over something that adds stress. Imagine if one does not have a pressure of time ever ever ever, then there is 90% stress taken out.
I will stop it here for now and yes, I have made a choice to be in Rome, it is best to become a Roman. That way, one would achieve the Zen State and internal peace.