I've been sick for the past 36 hours or so. I'm honestly not sure whether it's food poisoning or the flu, but the fact remains that being sick sucks. Fever, nausea, body aches, lost appetite, stomach pain, the works - it's no fun, whether you're in India, Chicago, Australia, Germany, or anywhere else for that matter.
With that thought in mind, I started thinking about other things that are completely the same here in India as they are back home. I've spent a lot of time writing about how different everything is here, but there are also quite a few things that do not change no matter where you are. Here's my list of the top 5 that come to mind:
1. Being sick sucks. I've already covered this, but it needs to be said again. Most likely because I'm cursing whatever bug is ailing me right now.
2. Hometown and regional affiliations persist. In the states whenever I learn the hometown of an American person, I can immediately understand something about that person based on where they grew up. Of course every person is different, but I would naturally make inferences. For example, my sister Megan grew up in Grand Rapids but has lived in New York for the past 4-5 years. My family likes to joke about how she's become a New Yorker who yells at cab drivers and jaywalks, but deep down we know that many of the things she loves about Michigan still make up a great deal of her personality - for example her love of the outdoors, knowing your neighbors, and going for runs around the lake rather than around Central Park. I came to India with very little idea about what the distinctions are between the different regions and states here. Of course I knew that India has different regions, but I never knew enough about them. It turns out that people here are the same as people back home - they strongly identify with the region in which they grew up, and others around them make inferences about them based on their background. It makes complete sense that people would do this, but only now am I starting to understand what the regional differences are. Of course, you can't make blanket assumptions about people based on where they're from. Even I know not to immediately judge a person because they're from Ohio - after all, not all Ohio natives are Buckeye fans, and my grandmother and my father were both born there, so clearly they can't all be bad...
3. People's love lives are complicated. The root causes behind the complications of the heart vary from person to person, but my friends and colleagues here in India are dealing with the same types of issues that my friends and colleagues in the states are facing. Someone's parents don't approve of their significant other. One person is in a relationship with someone who practices a different religion. A guy has had his heart broken because his girlfriend cheated on him. Another girl I know is worried that a guy she's dating may be gay and using her as a beard. A single girl is trying online dating for the first time because she's worried she's not meeting the right people in the traditional ways. All of these examples are real. The details of each situation may show more regional distinctions, but the overall theme is that love is complicated no matter where you go.
4. Losing weight is a priority. Many of my colleagues here are trying to lose weight. Some people need to lose more than others, but in general, this culture puts a premium on being slender and healthy. Some of these people are married, some are single. One colleague here takes the elevator to the bottom floor of our building every afternoon and then walks up 30 flights of stairs to get her exercise in (!). Another has started packing her lunch every day to lose weight for an upcoming vacation. It's all very similar to things you see in the states. In fact, it's almost worse here than in the US because people here are much more blunt about telling someone that they think they should lose weight. It's not uncommon for parents here to tell their children that they're getting fat. Yikes!
5. It's not what you know, but WHO you know that matters. While working for my firm at home, I was always encouraged to be building my network. "Networking" became a buzzword that I find annoying because people said it so often. As much as I'd like to think that I can advance in this world based solely on the quality of my work, I know better than that. Who you know does matter. In fact, as part of the process to gain sponsorship for business school, I had to put together a list of everyone within the firm who I know, and identify my strongest allies within the echelons of our leadership who would be willing to go to bat for me. That's normal in our business - since we're such a large firm, it makes sense that our leadership would rely on other leaders' assessments of an employee, since they can't possibly get to know each of us individually. At the firm in India, it's the same story. A more junior employee's success is largely dependent on their relationship with their boss, plus their boss' reputation within the office. If the boss loves him/her but the boss isn't well regarded in the office, then the junior employee's prospects suffer compared to a colleague whose boss is considered a rockstar. My friends and colleagues here tell me that it's incredibly important to work for the right people because that is the way you will get the best projects and also develop a reputation as being a high performer. Same story, different country.
There are a ton of other similarities that I didn't highlight here, but I think we can all take comfort in the fact that no matter where you go, some things always remain the same...
With that thought in mind, I started thinking about other things that are completely the same here in India as they are back home. I've spent a lot of time writing about how different everything is here, but there are also quite a few things that do not change no matter where you are. Here's my list of the top 5 that come to mind:
1. Being sick sucks. I've already covered this, but it needs to be said again. Most likely because I'm cursing whatever bug is ailing me right now.
2. Hometown and regional affiliations persist. In the states whenever I learn the hometown of an American person, I can immediately understand something about that person based on where they grew up. Of course every person is different, but I would naturally make inferences. For example, my sister Megan grew up in Grand Rapids but has lived in New York for the past 4-5 years. My family likes to joke about how she's become a New Yorker who yells at cab drivers and jaywalks, but deep down we know that many of the things she loves about Michigan still make up a great deal of her personality - for example her love of the outdoors, knowing your neighbors, and going for runs around the lake rather than around Central Park. I came to India with very little idea about what the distinctions are between the different regions and states here. Of course I knew that India has different regions, but I never knew enough about them. It turns out that people here are the same as people back home - they strongly identify with the region in which they grew up, and others around them make inferences about them based on their background. It makes complete sense that people would do this, but only now am I starting to understand what the regional differences are. Of course, you can't make blanket assumptions about people based on where they're from. Even I know not to immediately judge a person because they're from Ohio - after all, not all Ohio natives are Buckeye fans, and my grandmother and my father were both born there, so clearly they can't all be bad...
3. People's love lives are complicated. The root causes behind the complications of the heart vary from person to person, but my friends and colleagues here in India are dealing with the same types of issues that my friends and colleagues in the states are facing. Someone's parents don't approve of their significant other. One person is in a relationship with someone who practices a different religion. A guy has had his heart broken because his girlfriend cheated on him. Another girl I know is worried that a guy she's dating may be gay and using her as a beard. A single girl is trying online dating for the first time because she's worried she's not meeting the right people in the traditional ways. All of these examples are real. The details of each situation may show more regional distinctions, but the overall theme is that love is complicated no matter where you go.
4. Losing weight is a priority. Many of my colleagues here are trying to lose weight. Some people need to lose more than others, but in general, this culture puts a premium on being slender and healthy. Some of these people are married, some are single. One colleague here takes the elevator to the bottom floor of our building every afternoon and then walks up 30 flights of stairs to get her exercise in (!). Another has started packing her lunch every day to lose weight for an upcoming vacation. It's all very similar to things you see in the states. In fact, it's almost worse here than in the US because people here are much more blunt about telling someone that they think they should lose weight. It's not uncommon for parents here to tell their children that they're getting fat. Yikes!
5. It's not what you know, but WHO you know that matters. While working for my firm at home, I was always encouraged to be building my network. "Networking" became a buzzword that I find annoying because people said it so often. As much as I'd like to think that I can advance in this world based solely on the quality of my work, I know better than that. Who you know does matter. In fact, as part of the process to gain sponsorship for business school, I had to put together a list of everyone within the firm who I know, and identify my strongest allies within the echelons of our leadership who would be willing to go to bat for me. That's normal in our business - since we're such a large firm, it makes sense that our leadership would rely on other leaders' assessments of an employee, since they can't possibly get to know each of us individually. At the firm in India, it's the same story. A more junior employee's success is largely dependent on their relationship with their boss, plus their boss' reputation within the office. If the boss loves him/her but the boss isn't well regarded in the office, then the junior employee's prospects suffer compared to a colleague whose boss is considered a rockstar. My friends and colleagues here tell me that it's incredibly important to work for the right people because that is the way you will get the best projects and also develop a reputation as being a high performer. Same story, different country.
There are a ton of other similarities that I didn't highlight here, but I think we can all take comfort in the fact that no matter where you go, some things always remain the same...
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