The Bright and Dark sides of India: My Personal View as a Foreigner

 Dear Netizens,

This is just my personal view of foreigner seeing India when I got NIIT Computer and English Proficiency training in Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh in 2013. Two years earlier, I had already made a 40 days journey across Bangladesh to India. From The City of Dhakka then crossing the border Benapole-Penapole, passing West Bengal, Kolkata then reaching New Delhi.  What an enjoyable thrilling journey thousand miles by bus and train. 

At this moment, I'd like to show the Bright side and Dark side of India. Please, CMIIW = Please Correct Me If I'm Wrong.

The Bright side

•1 Hard-working ethics

•2.Self-Confident personality

•3. Great progress

•4. Simplicity

•5. Powerful Government

1.Hard working

•Since the population of India is estimated 1,27 billions in 2014 as Prabhat Singh my Indian trainer said that it is so difficult to find a good job in India. There is a tight competition or rivalry among job seekers. See the photo of  A rickshaw Wala:

This is the sad story of rickshaw people taken from the textbook of Introduction of Hindi, one of the native or vernacular language of Indian.

•I don't know why but whenever I go somewhere and take rickshaw I see a rickshaw wala who always does a very hard job of pulling the bicycle. He is sweating all over the body for a cheap payment. More than that I ever saw a rickshaw wala in Kolkata who didn’t use any bicycle. A 100% non-machine or physically pulling the vehicle.

This is more saddening, the photo of  a pulled rickshaw:

Hard working ethics

•The hard-working type of Indian can be seen in the time of rush hour in Delhi Metro. Particularly in a crowded T-junction like in Rajiv Chowk and Central Secretariat. I always see a very busy people go and move fast from and to their the places of work. See the photo of  Rush hour in Delhi Metro.

2.Self confidence

•The character of Indian is almost the same with Bangladeshi and Pakistani. Indian people have much the feeling of self-confidence that the average Indonesian people like me. I ever visited the city of Ranchi, in the province of Jharkhand and found out a little boy studying in primary school. At that time I asked him, “What’s your father do?” or “What’s your father’s job?”. He proudly said, “My father is a tailor”. Wow, I’ve known what his father is. His father didn’t got a big company. It was just a small shop in the city but his son was so proud of him.

Then the interesting story of  Jaipur, the Paris of India.  The next data showing the self-confidence of Indian people was taken from my  Elders or Senior’s story when he visited the city of Jaipur. It is a city where people sell diamond and jewelry but as we have already known in every city in India we can see garbage everywhere. At that time there was an old man said to my Elders, “Have you gone around the city?. ”Jaipur is the Paris of India.” wow, Jaipur is the Paris of India? Garbage and rubbish everywhere and that old man say “Jaipur, the Paris of India”?

4. Simplicity

•My friend who has been taking PhD of linguistics in  Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) told me that once an Indian was appointed as the leader in political structure he will lead a simple life. May be it was the  influence of the simple life of Mahatma Gandhi. It can also be seen on the campus of JNU that if a lecturer is appointed as the dean or professor; he will change his previous BMW or Merci into the modest one like Maruti Suzuki or Mahindra. Simplicity is a good exemplary in Indian public places.

3.Great progress

•Many young workers of India in the sector of IT and medical are able to speak English. In recent years there has been a tendency that many European and American companies made their outsourcing works towards India. The result was India got the revenue of total $ 69 billion from the outsourcing works.

•This facts will enable India defeat China as the giant of Economic achievement in Asia. We know that the English of China is worse that The English of Indian people and the limitation of the number of the child every family should have made the number of youngsters in China are less in number than in India.

5. Powerful Government

•In my opinion Indian government is more powerful than my government (Indonesia). Reading  Indian newspapers and websites I never see a citizen openly abuses his president or prime minister. In Indonesia after the the reign of two greatest founding fathers: Soekarno and Soeharto, it is common thing that a citizen  openly criticizes his president without hesitation that his criticism and insult will be harmful for him.

The Dark Sides

•1. Dirty environment

•2. Overpopulation

•3. Cheating and Corruptive Acts

•4. Noisy streets/Blowing horns

1.Dirty environment

•Apart from the Bright side: A Look Inside Ambani's 'Antilia', the Most Expensive House in the World (Perched on Mumbai's Altamount road, this 2 billion dollar home is equipped with an in-house salon, movie theater, and even a snow room!), one of the shocking facts seeing India at the first time is the dirty environment. For so many years before I visited India, I  used to be a guide for Tablighi Jamaat Pakistani and Indian Muslim who visited my city and they ever said that my city of Solo (Central Java) is so clean. At that time I wondered about the cleanliness of India and o la la it’s so dirty. See the photo of  Mumbai Slum.

2.Overpopulation

•The other shocking facts of India is overpopulation. With the number of 1,27 billions population I think it is very difficult for the government to manage their people and on the journey by Delhi metro I can see slum area near the river and on the other side luxurious apartments stand still near that slum area.

3.cheating/corruption

•There is an Arabian proverb says: “If you meet snake and an Indian people, kill the Indian first”. I think this is false stereotypes but many foreigners who ever visited India always warns the other people to be careful when visiting India. Cheating in the traditional market is common thing and I have prove myself that I got cheated in traditional market like Palika Bazzar. This is my story in Kompasiana.com: 

Jika anda pergi ke India Ditipu Jangan Heran ya

See the photo of Palika bazaar

4.Noisy streets

•This is unique but sometimes annoying. I knew this at the first time in January 2011 when I visited the city of Kolkata. Ocean of people and blowing horns everywhere. See the photo of  Kolkata traffic jam

Last words. Even though there are Dark side of India, I still love India and Someday, I want to visit this Incredible Country, Incredible India. Zindabad India.

Sumber gambar: https://pixahive.com/photo/a-badge/

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