Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Mangalayan and India..

India has successfully launched Managalayan with a fraction of the cost than that what US has spent. I read many articles where people say several things like India should focus on alleviating poverty blah blah blah. I know the general perception people have about India is it is very dirty, bad roads, anarchy, no clean drinking water, poverty, standard of living poor etc etc. While I agree to most of these, but there remains a component that you will not find anywhere, that is humanity. By saying humanity, I am not talking about the rapists or the terrorists or the murderers, as their number is far too lower than the number of good people.

 I will share an experience here that I had recently. I was coming from New York airport by AirIndia. AirIndia allows you to carry two carry ons and one handbag. Now I just had one big bag and that weighed slightly more than the allowed limit (23 KG). There was an African American sitting on the counter and she was really brutal. She said I will not let you take this, take out your stuff! I said I am just carrying one bag and one laptop, so can you not adjust this. She said a big NO to that. So, I opened my bag and tookout whatever was there on the top. And unfortunately I had a ziplock bag carrying toileterris , so I took that out, packed in a separate polythene bag (Since I did not have an extra bag) and checked that in. To that, she asked her colleagues if a polythene bag can be checked in and they said NO. So I thought I will carry it in my hand not realizing that there were LIQUID IN THERE!! Now I was about to leave and suddenly realized this fact. Then I went to the same counter and told the lady that these are liquid stuff and I cant carry them in hand. She is like I dont care! I said OK can you give my bag back, so that I will exchange this liquid with something else. She then said, I am not going to get your back, you climb up the belt and get it yourself. I was on the belt and then people from other desks started shouting what are you doing? I said she asked me to do that!! Then they sent another person for me to get the bag. Then I tried to exchange the liquid stuff with some clothes. At that time, there were few ladies (Of Indian Origin) came near me, lowered their voice and soothingly said, hurry up, pack it this way and helped me. Then I suddenly realized the difference between the 2 sets of people. One is very rude, mean, rigid and the other is considerate, compassionate and ready to help. This kind of people you will find only in India. I was thinking while leaving also my luggage was slightly overweight and the lady thought I am just carrying one bag, so why not to let me go. On the other hand here this lady knowing that my extra weight (Fraction of a kilo) is not a problem, still created a big fuss. So, this is what I like about India. If you are in trouble, they will all come and help you like they are your own, but elsewhere there is hard to find this species.
So, in short, India is not about poverty. In India, people are rich in heart. People may be living in dirty conditions, but I know for sure that they are not starving to death. Everybody has food to eat and they dont live on drugs or alcohol or debt. So we are richer than what others think about ut.

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