India is a place of mystery for any foreigner every visit brings out something that they never expected they have never seen before! And if they are on their maiden trip to INDIA then it as fascinating as seeing a flying comet and they are more often 'Awe' struck with anything as small as vegetarian food!
For my luck I have been the official guide and take around guy for the foreign colleagues of mine.. While in petronas it was the Italians and the Malaysians! And now it the Scandinavian friends the Swedish speaking Finnish friends !! (Something that I learnt new).
I will restrict my ordeal with the Finnish this time around!! Especially since I was just out of a time out with my friends who were as usual taking my case point out how easily that I digress from the topic of discussion!! Oops there again I did it!!
The first of my interaction was with a fairly young guy!! The son of CEO.. As usual my perception was 'lucky brat' not here on merit! But apparently he knew what he was talking about!! He had been up the ladder the rightful way! Yeah whatever.. I am not blogging about his capability! He from the little interaction i had did look like someone with action unlike the big shots I have come across in the short career! Anyways we were on our way to Taj Mahal!! The crown we Indians like to show off to the world!! It was peak summer.. Yeah when you are talking to a Finn! Oh they have no idea about summer.. For them the summer is pleasant!! 23 - 24•C and that's when the sun is out and short clothes out and people are enjoying their time out!! But in India no no no!! Summers are dreadful!! 48•C it's crazy hot!! It's baking hot!! We were in our most comfortable outfits possible! Shorts and linen shirts! And while we were at leisurely moving along the country side we were to witness the India exactly as it would be in a first worlder - the land of snake charmers!! Yes we had the cobra dancing to the charmers awfully painful-to-the-ear music (rather noise) ironically most snakes are deaf luck them!! But it was definitely moving in a pattern probably the vibrations! Anyways this probably made my friends day.. Rather his trip!! He saw the 'real' india as per the perceptions he had.. The land of snake charmers! Anyways he saw it!! He would probably have stories to tell back home about his eventful India trip! Anyways there we were in front of the Taj! Really amazing sight it was my second visit, the first barely able to recollect would have not believed my dad if not for the photo so yes there we were in front of the Taj Mahal! The wonder India has to offer to the world!!
The epitome of love! The saying 'till death do us apart' symbolizes here.. Anyways as we walked in to the ticket counter and there I was kinda confused.. For foreigners it was 750/- per head and Indians it was just 15/- per head (around that I don't exactly remember, all that I clearly remember was that it was strikingly cheap!) anyways to my surprise he had an explanation- if we have the money to travel from a different country probably we are better off to pay a little extra for keeping it clean and spotless! There you go like I said he did look intelligent and now he is logical as well! While we went about exploring the beautiful Taj we were constantly surprised by the guide who was narrating instances from the emperor's era as if he was there!! It was amazing to see the conviction with which he was narrating! It was amazing, my colleague and I joked wondering if we salesmen could talk to our customers with such conviction! Anyways on our way back, now that we had established a rapport it was a interesting drive back talking about incidents and funny stories and out came the truth! He was in a Live in with his girl friend, he is merely engaged, he is a to-be father! The expectation that in India where men, grown up 25 - 27 year old men stay home with parents till they married and sometimes even after that! So he had assumed if he had told the truth about the equation he shares with his fiancé (now) it would have been a cultural shock for us Indians! Yes if he was talking to my mom I bet she would have collapsed! I still remember her jaw dropping when I told her that the gang with whom i was going to goa included 3 girls! She said 'you will not stay in the same room as them is that understood!' I didn't but yeah imagine she hearing about this and top of it if she knew they were expecting a baby she would have probably snapped! Anyways it was me! And I was instead wishing damn!! I had such progressive women in India who wouldn't want to marry the moment you kiss them! Or rather will only kiss if you promised that you will marry her.. What if she is a horrible kisser?? Kidding I bet she would be most often cheated into kissing some ass! And then she becomes even more guarded! It's a chain reaction and I bet the western world did go through this cycle before it became boring and mundane and opened up!
So there you go something to chew on about the contrasting lifestyles of western and the eastern world!!
End of part 1
