India

Since I've been in Singapore, the country I have visited the most has been India.  I first went due to work, and while most of my subsequent visits have also been work related, ew, st, dk, and I did spend a considerable amount of time in Ladakh searching for a snow leopard.  Before I first went, I had no real desire to ever see India.  I had heard great things about the Taj Mahal, the swamp waters of Kerala, Goa, and of course the craziness of Mumbai.  I had heard about the transformative nature of ashrams, in the Eat, Pray, Love mold.  But for some reason, India was never one of those countries that I had on my list of countries to see.  Maybe it's because it seemed too big, too difficult to tackle.  Or maybe it's because despite all the hearsay, no one I personally knew had ever come back with a positive report.  There were tales of food poisoning, scammers, inefficiencies, hordes of people.  And after being there, I can say firsthand that all of those things are in fact true. India is a very difficult place to visit, and I still don't have a great fondness for going there.  But it is unique in that I think it really gives us a window into the large disconnect between perception and reality.  When I worked in the U.S., India was considered an emerging market with an incredible growth story: the world's largest democracy with an English speaking population that would be poised to take over all the white collar jobs.  When I'm in India, I see the majority of the population mired in poverty, with basic infrastructure requirements sorely lacking.  People want to talk about the success of Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad.  They don't want to recognize that aside from the major cities, the rest of India is still a rural state.

It's nicer to think about India in that yoga, kama sutra, darjeeling tea context.  India is such a large country that it is easy to get away and find yourself.  Ladakh is a desolate region, particularly in winter, and is beautifully tranquil.  I've been to Gandhi's main ashram in Ahmedabad, and for a moment, you are able to think, this must be the true India.  But then you walk by the half-completed buildings with construction rubble just lying around.  The stench of sewage.  Roads that have no separation, so you're going against oncoming traffic.  To some extent, India reminds me of Africa.  Little to no infrastructure for basic needs, like power and clean water.  But in Africa, it's more sparsely populated, so people aren't fighting so much for everything.  In India, since everyone lives on top of each other, everyone is fighting for every inch. 

I asked my Indian coworker whether he thinks Indians are a pessimistic or optimistic people.  He said he would be inclined to believe they are pessimistic.  I was initially puzzled by this because how can a developing country, with so much opportunity for rapid growth be pessimistic?  But then you think about how nothing has changed.  Every visit to China brings something new--a new road, a new industrial park, a new shopping center.  In India, there's a paralysis in government, in having too many voices.  And people support this paralysis because they just want to be heard but do not want to act.  So there's a lot of rhetoric that insinuates change, but at the end of the day, most of the country is still in poverty.  It's hard to see this changing any time soon.

When you fight for every inch, you lose a bit of empathy.  When I worked at JPMorgan, poor treatment of analysts was justified by, "this is what I had to go through to get to where I am."  People think that if they experienced a struggle, a fight for every inch, then they earned everything they have.  And that anyone who suffered less does not deserve the same.  It's this idea of meritocracy.  That they somehow worked harder.  But there are plenty of people who work hard who just don't get the same breaks in life.  Life is not fair.  And if life is not fair, meritocracy is a myth.  In Asia, it's a constantly perpetuated myth, whether due to cultural reasons or the fact that people are fighting for every inch.  And I think it's hurting countries like India.    It's not uncommon to see Indians treat their countrymen with disdain, whether it's because they are blue collar workers, of a lower caste, or maybe because they simply think that money makes them more important.  It's hard to rise when your own people are trying to keep you down.

Despite all this, India is yoga, kama sutra, darjeeling tea.  On a clear day in the quieter town of Ahmedabad, it's easy to get lost in this.  Or while sitting on the lawn at Rambargh Palace in Jaipur.  Or when climbing a ridge in the Ladakh Himalayas.  There's a diversity and a definite cultural identity to India.  And if you have a little empathy, there's something to be found there.