[Assam] Lighter Note - FOJs : Fresh OFF the Jets / FOBs : Bullock Cart /Camel Carts

[umesh sharma]

There must be said something about the notion of FOBs (Fresh Off the Boat - now Jetplanes) . Jet lag or whatever cultural differences and a hankering for oldways and desire for freedom and new stuff makes people do strange things.

Just now at 10:30 pm while getting out of the elevator on 7th floor of my Cirlce Towers I saw again the couple having food - right in the corridor - with laptops for company!! They totally covered the corridor (5 feet wide) and anyone going thru would have to step over them. Fortunately I take a turn to the right just before reaching them to go to my apartment.  Most likely they are the new batch of students of IT who have just come from India in Few 2008 .

Ofcourse, it takes a while to get used to putting money in a slot machine to get a bus ticket etc but eating in a corridor is basic bad  manners in any culture unless  one is totally loco in love or grown up as sewer rats.

Two days back I had asked to sit in my apartment (rather than make a fool of themselves and all Indians) if in their apartment there was no electricity etc. The girl happily said that she was "just" outside her apartment (which is "Only Girls Allowed" - I presume - unlike many other Indian girls' apartments) and the corridor has become their living room.
.

Ofcourse, people's conception of USA as a land of informal Hollywood culture makes people chuck their clothes and come out in bikinis and shorts. I found that an ex-roommate of mine roamed all around inthe local buses dressed in T shirt and Boxer shorts - which are ofcourse shorts but in the US they are male counterparts of panties :-)

Culture training is one thing and plain bad manners is another thing -- whether one is moving from village to a town or from the town to the metro or from a metro to a megapolis.

any comments?

Umesh


Umesh Sharma

Washington D.C. 

1-202-215-4328 [Cell]

Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005

http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)




www.gse.harvard.edu/iep  (where the above 2 are used )
http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/



http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
       
---------------------------------
 Yahoo! for Good helps you make a difference