Culture Shock
I am sure that Indian students who have gone abraod for studies have been briefed enough about this topic, and am sure both the students and professionals who have settled abroad have felt this when they returned to India after a long time..well, here are my 2 cents worth of culture shock incidents (limiting myself to India -USA - India)
As soon as you land in USA
- Driving on the right side of the road (obvious)
- Electric Switches (work the other way around)
- Shower curtains have to be put inside the bath tub
- If you are in small cities, every one annoyingly saying Hello, Hi, Wassup, How you doing?
- If you are in big cities, Indians staring at you like you are invading their territory
- People saying thanks, excuse me, bless you every now and then
- A wierd look when a guy puts his arm around another guy
- A wierd look when 2 people stand close to each other
- Concept of returning things to stores within 30 days and get the full money back
- The wierd rule of having J silent in some words like Jalapino and X silent in some words like Mexico
- Utter confusion of replacing Z in words where normally we tend to use S
- Using double negatives in sentences ex. I aint saying nothing
- Getting used to the wierd concept of paying even for incoming calls in Cell phones and night time free minutes
As soon as you return back to India
- Thanking bus conductor for giving you a ticket or a change of 50 paise and getting the wierd look
- Saying Hi for the policeman in the airport and getting a royal stare back
- When travelling in public transport, having the wierd feeling that people are all over you
- Why the heck people in India have to work more than 40 hrs a week, but paid only for 40 hrs?
- Arguing with a maligai kadai kaaran to return a alugina thengai and then fret abt customer service in the States
- Looking for calories on the back of every food article purchased in super market (as if we were born and bought up in that)
Well, the list would go on.. so guys please add on..
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Black Friday
What a week... First had my Laptop crash due to spyware, then got wickedly burnt by Dell (who asked me to pay for helping me format the system), and then had a marathon shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. When i was doing my Masters, I never cared about shopping on the day after thanksgiving day..But i did jump on to the wagon soon after i started my PhD..may be bcos of boredom on the long holidays or due to the sheer need to see the crowd.. The first year, I cared less to wake up at 4 am. But the last 2 times, I religiously woke up at 4 am and made sure I was in Bestbuy at 4:30 am. If you thought, I stand there wanting to buy every Goddamn thing there, u r mistaken. I, for some reason, like the energy of the crowd there. You see people of all ages, some with coffee in their hands and some still droolling from the last sleep, but all with a kid like look for shopping.. Last time, i ended up picking a bunch of empty CDs and this year I got myself a 120Gig Hard Drive (I have been feeling stupid of not backing up my 4 years of PhD work in school and my prized possession of Mp3s)..After Bestbuy, we (me and my other half) drove to an Outlet mall and just dropped in every shop we can think of..After 4 hrs, we were dead tired and got 4 T-shirts as the momento of the torment..
Well, I thought I would post some neat stuff about the Black friday day. First about the name "Black Friday". Before you think of any sinister stuff, retiailers use this day to move from Loss (red marking) to profit (black) in their balance sheets, thus giving the name Black Friday..Most importantly, black friday is all about retailers gimmick. You would never see a good brand on sale that day. You would get to see brands which are slogging to get off the shelf or brands which want to make a mark in the market. The brands which sell their stuff, with a reduced pricing, also makes money. Most of the consumers would be fooled to be happy with MAIL IN REBATE. Mail in rebate works always in favor of the brand and not us (consumers).. Have you ever thought that what is reason behind someone saying that a product is worth 100$, but after mail in rebate the price would be 40$? Well, first the manufacturing price for that product would be well below 40$. Secondly, it takes 6-8 weeks for the brands to process your mail in rebate and then send you the check. But till the time (you encash the mail-in-rebate check), the money is in the brand's account - an instant cash pool, without paying any interest)..Next comes the tax part. When you get the product, you pay for 100$ and tax for it, and not the tax for 40$. So the city and state also gets a cut on this...Man, as i tell my wife, America always finds ways and means to prove it as a Capitalist society and ways to milk the common man..
The last thing is, the products we think are being sold cheaply would be sold at the same price a week or 1 month down the lane. A bummer...Having said these stuff, who cares?? Its all about having fun and treating yourself/others..
I shall post a picture of the crowd...
What a week... First had my Laptop crash due to spyware, then got wickedly burnt by Dell (who asked me to pay for helping me format the system), and then had a marathon shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. When i was doing my Masters, I never cared about shopping on the day after thanksgiving day..But i did jump on to the wagon soon after i started my PhD..may be bcos of boredom on the long holidays or due to the sheer need to see the crowd.. The first year, I cared less to wake up at 4 am. But the last 2 times, I religiously woke up at 4 am and made sure I was in Bestbuy at 4:30 am. If you thought, I stand there wanting to buy every Goddamn thing there, u r mistaken. I, for some reason, like the energy of the crowd there. You see people of all ages, some with coffee in their hands and some still droolling from the last sleep, but all with a kid like look for shopping.. Last time, i ended up picking a bunch of empty CDs and this year I got myself a 120Gig Hard Drive (I have been feeling stupid of not backing up my 4 years of PhD work in school and my prized possession of Mp3s)..After Bestbuy, we (me and my other half) drove to an Outlet mall and just dropped in every shop we can think of..After 4 hrs, we were dead tired and got 4 T-shirts as the momento of the torment..
Well, I thought I would post some neat stuff about the Black friday day. First about the name "Black Friday". Before you think of any sinister stuff, retiailers use this day to move from Loss (red marking) to profit (black) in their balance sheets, thus giving the name Black Friday..Most importantly, black friday is all about retailers gimmick. You would never see a good brand on sale that day. You would get to see brands which are slogging to get off the shelf or brands which want to make a mark in the market. The brands which sell their stuff, with a reduced pricing, also makes money. Most of the consumers would be fooled to be happy with MAIL IN REBATE. Mail in rebate works always in favor of the brand and not us (consumers).. Have you ever thought that what is reason behind someone saying that a product is worth 100$, but after mail in rebate the price would be 40$? Well, first the manufacturing price for that product would be well below 40$. Secondly, it takes 6-8 weeks for the brands to process your mail in rebate and then send you the check. But till the time (you encash the mail-in-rebate check), the money is in the brand's account - an instant cash pool, without paying any interest)..Next comes the tax part. When you get the product, you pay for 100$ and tax for it, and not the tax for 40$. So the city and state also gets a cut on this...Man, as i tell my wife, America always finds ways and means to prove it as a Capitalist society and ways to milk the common man..
The last thing is, the products we think are being sold cheaply would be sold at the same price a week or 1 month down the lane. A bummer...Having said these stuff, who cares?? Its all about having fun and treating yourself/others..
I shall post a picture of the crowd...
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
One more fan for Ipod
Just got hold of Ipod shuffle...Have heard awesome things about Ipod, but nothin beats a first hand experience.."Just awesome" would summarize my feeling..The first song I heard was the Title song by Rehman from Aa Aaah..It was befitting the glamor of Ipod..Sound clarity is crystal clear and feels like as if listening through Bose headsets..
Just got hold of Ipod shuffle...Have heard awesome things about Ipod, but nothin beats a first hand experience.."Just awesome" would summarize my feeling..The first song I heard was the Title song by Rehman from Aa Aaah..It was befitting the glamor of Ipod..Sound clarity is crystal clear and feels like as if listening through Bose headsets..
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