From up above, its all the same. From so high, everything below looks exactly like everything else. But the difference becomes visible in quantums as you descend from 10000 meters up in the air to the landing strip.
As soon as you are close enough to the land to see some details, you see long rows of vehicles moving neatly on roads, which seem to have been etched on the ground with the same order and perfection with which you drew lines and circles with your high school geometry instruments. And they all intersect in orderly junctions, or just go above each other as flyovers. As you approach landing, and look out the window, you find you are not the only one waiting to touch ground. These are busy skies. Busier than the Delhi sky. Thats because America has succeeded in putting more people in air than India has.
You descend further, and you see the houses. Arranged in clean blocks, all with unifrom sloping roofs. From up above, the city looks as planned as one in a city planning computer game. Cities in India look like those in computer games too, though more like after they have been invaded and ruined by the enemy. You touch down before your ponderings on the striking differences between the aerial views of Indian and American cities are over.
America is a country that functions like an efficient, state of the art, well-oiled machine. There is not much humanity about the way it goes about doing things. I say that because unlike India, laws, rules and procedures in America are not in a state of constant strain due to human intervention. Rules are, at least on the surface, unbreakable. Procedures are followed to the letter. And people, under normal circumstances, are honest. There are no reasons to doubt the amount of fare your taxi driver demands from you. No one seems to doubt taxi drivers there, something very weird for an Indian. No need to check the balance after you have paid the bill at a restaurant. No need to keep an eye on people trying to jump the queue you are in. There is a basic decency about the way people go about doing things.
People are extremely cordial, so much so that just a "Thank You" is never enough. Appending it with "I appreciate it" is not uncommon. And "My pleasure" is thrown around like confetti. I am not saying they don't mean it. Just that an American always has more occasions than an Indian to be thankful to someone, and hence, the invention of novel ways of thanking. In fact, the latest ad campaign by Citibank there pokes fun at exactly that. They have termed the "Online Banking" services of other banks as "Online Thanking" services. Citibank claim to provide more that just "Thanks".
But the cordiality does extend beyond words. The staff at a street-side burger joint would be much more eager to correct an incorrectly taken or given order than a waiter at an upmarket Delhi restaurant. And its not just about making money. Thats they way they are. Cordiality is the American speciality. It is the Uncle Sam's USP. Its the American cordiality that has made millions of brilliant Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and people of assorted other nationalities make America home. America treats you well. America treats you like you are one of its own. America makes you feel home.
The amount of Indians you see in America amazes you. Sometimes, you just don't feel like an outsider. For me, wonder of wonders was some Indian youngsters playing Antakshari on a New-York transit train, as if it was their school bus in any Indian town. Americans around were unfazed, and the strange utterings in alien tunes in a foreign language didn't draw a curious glance. I always had this fear of being lynched by natives on a visit of a distant land. The Antakshari incident put my fears to rest. Americans don't lynch people. Only, in some un-understandable wave of frenzy, they take their planes thousands of miles away and bomb strangers. But such bouts of unreasonableness aside, Americans truly are friendly people.
Very soon, I was to get a view of the American professional life. And it surprised me no less. Everyone leaves for home at five in the evening. Dads help their children with their homework. Americans don't work on weekends. Many work "out of home", which just means they work at home, using broadband connections, and never go to their offices. The need to discuss things with colleagues is met through telephone conferences. No one over-works. They don't let you under-work. So you just work. To an Indian doing off-shored work, flitting between states of over-work and under-work with dizzying frequency, that is just heaven.
To someone making a short visit, America, for most parts, is a fairytale world, minus the frogs, dwarfs, witches and the huncbacks. Maybe, years ago, they packed them all in boats and set them sail. Maybe, a lot of the ships touched shore in India.
Thats a very bad view to take of your ancestors. But to be honest, America DOES give you complexes.
