New York is such an 'International' City. When I travel in the subway - I see so many different KINDS of people - language, race, physical appearance - its amazing!
Everyone uses the subway and the subway is always crowded - the resemblance to Mumbai is uncanny. The similarity extends - New York is a dirty city :) [By U.S Standards] ; plastic bags lying unattended on the streets, cigarette butts thrown carelessly - the usual. Quite a generic correlation between population density and unkemptness!
Also, New Yorkers go about 'minding their own businesses'. Nobody has the time or inclination to greet you or exchange plesantries if they bump into you. Now, coming from India - you won't find this odd - that's how it is everywhere.
But Chicago,(or the rest-of-the-US I assume) is quite different. I remember going for a walk in the beautiful neighbourhood (called The Highlands) at my sister's place - everyone greets you with 'good morning!' 'how are you?' as if they have known you for years. You feel a little weird initially but get used to it soon :)
Okay - back to New York. My point about these cultural etiquettes goes deeper. The whole American Culture Theme can be described in two words - informal and friendly. If you are standing for shelter during rains, you might start off an witty conversation with the person next to you and you wouldn't even know!
Like I observed while waiting for the final decision regarding the Nadal - Murray match. Hurricane Hanna had spoiled Murray party - man, he was really on a roll!
We are going again to the Aurthur Ashe Stadium today to see the remainder of the match. I am going to shout "GO RAFA!!" yet again, but I suspect it is going to be more effective this time ;)
To give you an idea of the informality in American culture - as we were passing through the security checks at the stadium - a tall,burly officer said :"I am sorry,if you have 2 bananas - you may want to step aside please.."
I froze. Certain that I had misheard him, I assumed he was referring to two plastic bags (which I was carrying). Then he gives us this big smile and says : "Just kidding folks - Enjoy yourself! " LOL
3 comments:
Hi ,
I was reading ur blog posts and found some of them to be very good.. u write well.. Why don't you popularize it more.. ur posts on ur blog ‘My Life and What I make out of it’ took my particular attention as some of them are interesting topics of mine too;
BTW I help out some ex-IIMA guys who with another batch mate run www.rambhai.com where you can post links to your most loved blog-posts. Rambhai was the chaiwala at IIMA and it is a site where users can themselves share links to blog posts etc and other can find and vote on them. The best make it to the homepage!
This way you can reach out to rambhai readers some of whom could become your ardent fans.. who knows.. :)
Cheers,
Hehe.. The security officer's comment was damn funny.
(BTW, who's this Rambhai guy? He has spammed me too.)
Maga, I thought you will write about all your "AmericaDalli Gorooru" moments. Illnodre baalehannu bittre yenu illa. Why I say, not posting wonly ?
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