In my preceding 3
pieces on this subject, i have narrated 3 of the places of interest that we
visited during our recent U S trip. Here is an overview:
In the first, i have
narrated how first thing that the protagonist of the novel Half A Girlfriend by
Chetan Bhagat notices during his maiden visit to U S of A is that there is no
honking by vehicles on U S roads, as is common in India. He also felt that the
sky is bluer in U S A. I too noticed these things. Roads are very wide and
there are different lanes for vehicles with different speed. The number of cars on the road is much larger
but they move in a disciplined manner. When a driver changes the speed, he/she
simply moves to the appropriate lane. There is no close overtaking and hence no
need for honking.
At Kennedy Space Centre, NASA,Meritt Island, Florida, U S A
The reason for the
sky appearing bluer is that there is almost no dust. The two sides of most
roads in India are full of dust and speeding vehicles blow these up into the
air. In contrast, both the sides of U S roads are covered with grass, leaving
no scope for heaps of dust. The climate is colder than that in India and this
helps grass not drying up leaving the space for dust.
Entrance of Kennedy Space Centre
The minimum
stipulated speed is 40 miles (64 KMs) and the maximum varies from 50 to 80
miles (80 to 120 KMs). (In USA, Metric System is not followed and so ‘mile’ as
a unit of measuring distance is used and so are ‘pound’ and ‘gallon’ for
measuring weight and liquids respectively.) I did not notice any disorderly driving. Once
i saw a road-sign saying ‘Traffic Congestion next 7 miles). There is no
disorderly driving even when there is a little congestion. I never saw crowded
or disorderly vehicles as in India, particularly at railway level crossings.
Whenever there is an accident, police and ambulance reach the spot almost
immediately.
I did not see any
two-wheeler or pedestrian on most roads.
Pedestrians were there in shopping areas. And i was struck by the habit
of American drivers stopping their vehicles to allow a pedestrian to pass first.
In India, pedestrians, trying to cross roads, create a zebra crossing for
themselves by extending both their arms to stop vehicles from running over
them!
I did not notice
any corner-shops as is the common sight in India. There are huge malls and
almost all transactions are cashless, use of cards being the usual way. There
is no M R P (Maximum Retail Price) concept. All packaged commodities are
required in India to print the M R P on the packs. However, there being
completely free enterprise system in U S A, malls decide prices basing on their
cost, profit-margin and other factors and indicate the price on the respective
shelves. Quite often, the price of the same product is different at different
times and at different malls. Free competition is the most effective regulator
of prices in U S A. I was reminded of a lesson which i had learnt while
studying Business Economics in the M B A Course: In a competitive economy,
individual entrepreneurs are not price-makers but price-takers. There is no bargaining while buying products
in USA.
Another aspect of
shopping i noticed is that if a customer wishes to return an item purchased,
malls gladly accept it even if the packing has been opened. The amount is refunded
fully without any reservation. In India, shop-keepers do not accept if the
packet has been opened. Also, the amount is generally not returned; the
customer has to buy another item of the same or higher price. Once i went to a
shop near my house at Bhubaneswar to return an item and did not wish to
purchase another one. The shop keeper gave me a kind of a kutcha credit note for the amount written on a piece of paper. I
had to redeem it part by part by purchasing from the same shop other items.
Each time, the shop keeper reduced the amount of the ‘credit note’ till the
full amount was redeemed!
Buying on credit
for any and every purpose is an American habit. I noticed that there were
establishments which gives loans against the security of car titles, i.e.,
against ownership papers. Once i read
that if you have $ 10 in your pocket and no debt, you are richer than 75% of
the Americans. Borrowing for all purposes is common in U S A. It is said that
Americans love to spend tomorrow’s income today! I had read also there that in
USA, 40% of the births are from unwed mothers.
While in U S A, i used to read, among other
things, Odia newspapers on the internet. On the 1st March, 2016, the
Odia newspaper The Sambad published an article by Bhagaban Prakash. It dealt
with the book titled ‘Twenty-one Habits I Lost in India’ by the American
photographer Rachael Rucort ( I am not sure of the spelling of this name.) The
first American habit he gave up in India was the timeliness. Most of the things
do not happen on time. The writer talks of the micro-oven culture of U S A;
everything is done instantly and on time. He has said that the Indian habit of
washing rather than wiping after visiting a
toilet is healthier. The author had felt that churches taking a full one hour
to solemnize a marriage in USA was too long. This, till he observed an Indian
marriage which takes a full week and preparations for it start six months or
more ahead. In the West, marriage takes place between two persons but in India,
marriages are between two families and more of their extended families. He was
also struck by the Indian system of arranged marriages. The author writes that in India one comes
across historical monuments and heritage each 50 or 100 kilo metres, which are
500 to 5000 years old. In contrast, American civilization and history are only
400 years old.
During our stay in
USA, we had visited among other places, Kennedy Space Centre in Meritt Island
of Florida State. We had also spent almost a full day-time in Disney Park. Here
are some of the photos taken there:
At Disneyland
This was my third
visit to U S A; the wife had visited 4 times and had stayed for longer periods.
At those times, we had visited among other places, the UN Headquarters, White
House Visitor Centre, Smithsonian Institute, Lincoln Memorial, World War II
Memorial, Holocaust Memorial, Empire State Building, World Trade Centre which
had been ravaged by terrorist, Statue
of Liberty and Niagara Falls. Here are
some of the photos.
UN Head Quarters
Before Statue of Liberty
Smithsonian Institution
White House
Niagara Falls in the evening
Lincoln Memorial
Your support is so comfortable, Grandpa!
(With Grand Daughter I, 2006)
USA is very
advanced as far as material wealth is concerned but in the pursuit of material
happiness, a little of human values goes missing. A husband and a wife have to
say many times during a day, “I love you.”, to show his or her love for the
partner. Indians do not have to expressly say so; such sentiments underlie
relationships and are understood by actions. Children on becoming adults, go on
their own and live separately. Old parents have to fend for themselves. I read
in a book by an Odia author about his feelings on a visit to USA. One weekend,
he saw a young man, his wife and small children visiting a house adjacent to
where he was staying. After sometime, he saw the couple bringing out a dead
body from the house. The old lone resident of the building had died a couple of
days before, unnoticed by anybody. The visitors, the old man’s son and
daughter-in-law discovered his death on their visit to him at the week-end! Of
course, as a price of ‘progress’, old parents having to live on their own, has
started happening in India too. (:
While in U S, the
wife and i had a very good time with the grand children, daughter and son of
Daughter I.
Just before our U
S visit, Daughter I and II and their families had visited us together. The
Daughter-in-law, about whom i have written an earlier post, had joined us along
with the grand- daughter, about whom also i have written a post, joined us. Our home hummed with full activity.
Three grand children on a swing set up at our home. (December, 2015)
We
had a gala time together. :)))))))
