Europeanized Thinking

I am not among those who show their foreign return attitude to their friends and public. I will not say “Hamare wahan Europe mein to aisa hota tha” “It’s so tidy here in India” “India can’t be like European countries” or anything of that sort. I am born and brought up here in our great India only. Whatever it be and its system, only this is my home my own country (Apne to Apne hote hain). But I would like to share some of the qualities of European people which I would love to see in Indians, not those of cleanliness or non-corruption which everyone knows.

Rules are rules – There is an Indian notion which I also followed: Rules are made for the people; people are not made for the rules. But here in Europe rules & regulations are strict and law is above all (there shall be some potholes in European system also which I may have missed). I witnessed one such incident - There was a Pizza corner outside my house, its owner was an Indian and being an Indian I had a good connection with him. Once he was fined for three thousand Euros for lack of cleanliness, next day I saw him requesting one of his customers’s for helping him getting that fine canceled, that fellow was at some high post in Municipal Corporation or something. But he straight away dismissed his request even though he was his regular customer and knew him from many years. His plain answer was “you should follow rules properly”. We know it well, if that were a scene in India then what would have been the options for this guy from bribing to the inspector to a political approach for MC. In Europe there are hefty fines for breaking traffic laws, for destroying public property, Littering etc moreover those laws are implemented strictly.

Mind your own business – We Indians are very good at poking our nose into others business. We are always eager to search into others personal matters but these Europeans are always at safeguard on their personal front. They don’t talk much about their personal life and they don’t ask much about your personal life. Nobody cares about what other person is wearing or what his/her hair-style is? On the other hand we Indians are mastered in squeezing information from others life and then blowing it out without forgetting to add spices.

Do it yourself – We need a person to help us from delivering water bottles in office to loading papers in photocopier even at home we have helpers for every kind of work. But as everyone know there are no helpers or house maids in Europe, they are used to work for themselves; there are more bicycles than cars in Germany but still there is no cycle mechanic, everyone has their own air-pump, puncture kit etc, they themselves work on their cycles and all the small mechanical or electrical stuff at home. Over to that, all the wood-work at my place was done by my landlord himself and surely there is more wood than concrete or bricks in that home. There are plenty of such examples.

Good Marketing strategies can do wonders – In last six months I have been to many European tourist spots and believe me after seeing many of them you will definitely ask, Is this worth that much hype? But these people know how to market their product. After seeing all these places I will say India has more tourist spots than anywhere else in the world but we need to learn the way to cash them.

We are the greatest – Last but not the least, whatever may be; only we are the best. Whomsoever I talked to German, Britisher, French or Italian one thing was common they won’t stop praising their country. That’s what we must learn from them, what so ever is the political or economical conditions are in India but please don’t disgrace our country in front of foreigners. Blame or abuse anybody or anything about India in front of Indians (of-course for genuine reasons) but outside India please keep yours and your countries' esteem high. I tried my best to portray "Incredible India" Image and improve their (foreigners) knowledge about India but I had seen many Indians here who by their bad mouth are not doing good for India.

East or West India is the best - There are many good Indian habits which the Europeans lack, Good Hospitality, Cultural diversity, Family Bonding, Kindness, Helping and Docile nature and last but not the least our English speaking skills ;) I will try to Europeanize my thinking a bit while keeping these Indian qualities intact.