[Assam] penguins and bike rides : Funny cultural shocks to host country folks

[umesh sharma]

Hi,

After last night's reaction from roommates (2 from Indian metros, one American who has lived/worked for pay for 5 months on Antartica, a  Russian -Moldovian) regarding my riding bicycle on Freeway Route 66 and then onto Route 495 (which is like a Ring Road) and then been stopped by a cop(police car - without outer appearance) while I was trying to get back onto safer roads- they declared it was insane to try to do that. The American accepted my version that in India it is common to ride bicycle on the highways (even bullock/camel carts) and  that even in Delhi I have traveled the ring road's 40 miles (60 kms) at night on a bicycle in college days. Ofcourse, I had not mentioned that in 2002  (a precursor to my planning t o  com e to  the US ) i  had  cycled for 12 hours -starting on a moonless night on the national highway - total 100 miles .

The Russian then chimed in about how cold it is in Russia. Some Russians went to India (which is much warmer) in winter time. The Indians were astounded and called them crazy when these guys went into the open air pool for a swim (when Indians were chattering in their jackets.  It was quite warm for the Russians:-)

The American guy who speaks Russian and works for a non-profit , I found, had worked in Antartika for 5 months - he got the job since he knew Russian and had a friend there who referred him. There are 1200 people on that base. Russians are there too. US govt gives a medal to all those who serve in Antartica - he got one too. I learnt that discoverer on SOuth Pole - Amundsen was able to win against Scott (my father's favorite story about planning ahead) becos he understood local conditions better - ate penguins and used dogs. Scott (of UK) used horses who died on the first day - his dogs were not used much- he did not eat penguins.

moral of the story:  if in Antartica then eat penguins??

Umesh

PS: Driving in US is so boring, so many rules!
Funny that even Delhi guys find US roads dangerous - I would have thought the other way round


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/
       
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