Monday, March 07, 2005

What India can learn from America

Now that we're globalising - it'd be great if we in India adopted some of these (really great) things from the American way of life.

The Public Library: Hollywood devotes a lot more movie footage to the prom than the library, so the rest of the world knows little about this amazing American institution. No matter how small the town it will possess a decent sized public library which residents can use - free of cost. Of course, technically the library is funded by taxes but you don't actually pay each time you borrow a book.

Cut to India, where you find libraries mainly in colleges, and sad ones at that. Some of them still refuse to let you browse through the shelves and choose for yourself. No sir, write the name of the book you want and a haughty looking librarian will go fetch it for you!

The only other kind of library around is the local 'circulating' library stocking Archie Double Digests, Mills & Boon and James Hadley Chase in the name of 'novels'. And even this kind of library is practically extinct now, having upgraded to VCD and DVD rentals.

Penurious kitabi keedas can either try their luck along the footpaths of Fountain and Daryaganj which sell second hand books. Or, shamelessly hang out in Crossword and read as much as you can without buying.

Funda: Yes, there is satellite TV and there is google. But if you want to get through CAT, a love for reading is what will see you through the verbal section. Mugging up word lists and practicing mock CATS is not enough. Take my word on that!

Graduation: A graduation ceremony is that one last and memorable gathering of a group of young people who've lived and learnt so much together. A rite of passage for every American high school and college student.

It's a solemn, formal occassion witnessed with pride by family and friends. Graduation is a landmark and the ritual of cap and gown, class procession and valedictory address makes its feel like one.

In Bharat desh mahaan the 'convocation ceremony' is an utter joke. The university itself churns out so many thousand graduates that it only bothers to invite gold medallists for the ceremony. The rest of us will have to go to some clerk infested office and fetch our degrees - sometime over the course of the year.

It's no coincidence that the only institutions which actually have the tradition of a formal convocation are the IITs and IIMs. Not to say that if all colleges go the cermonial way their degrees or diplomas will suddenly increase in their inherent value. But the feel-good factor of graduation surely will!

Funda: Convication to baad ki baat hai, pehle universities mein standard to hona chahiye! Every young Indian wants a decent education - which accounts for the huge number of MBA and Engineering colleges which have sprung up. But there's no governing body to ensure they provide a minimum acceptable quality and infrsatructure... :(

Compare that to the US where even low ranked colleges are not bad places to study. Which is why we're seeing a huge exodus of Indian students to unheard of institutes in even Australia/ New Zealand.

* Endowments: When rich Americans kick the bucket, they invariably will a good sum to their alma maters, pet charities or research institutions. When rich Indians kick the bucket, their kids get everything. Or, in the absence of a will, fight over everything for the next 20 years.

Americans endow colleges and non profit organisations working for the greater good of society. Indians endow temples and benches in parks. Americans are not shocked to receive letters from their former universities asking to be named as beneficiaries in their wills. Indians are shocked by the very concept of making a will.

Things are changing here, slowly. But we still have way too many park benches and temples, and far too many causes and institutions struggling for funds.

Funda: The 'I take care of you in old age' concept is kind of disappearing, with most parents preferring to remain financially self sufficient - and even live independently - in their post-retirement phase.

Eventually, I do see many socially minded individuals bequeathing a part of their savings to charity. But the bulk of it will still go to the kids - or grandkids. Woh hamari parampara hai...

Garage Sales: The runaway success of ebay.com is no surprise when you note the fact that Americans have always loved buying each others's junk. They simply stuck a 'garage sale' sign and sold away at throwaway prices. Kids sell the toys they've outgrown, grown ups their books and furniture. One man's castaways became another's bargain.

Garage sales are fun, they're sensible, they're a cheaper way of decluttering than hiring a feng shui consultant. But we Indians believe in lovingly preserving stuff that's never going to be used in this lifetime. Just in case.

It's always been a recycle and use culture but now, the old systems can't cope any more. The bai doesn't want that sequinned spaghetti you're bored of, or the barely used baby cot. But, garage sales don't take place in India... maybe because we don't have garages. Maybe a 'Sunday bazaar' in the local park where anyone can set up a stall and sell might be the answer?

Funda: Many stores do accept old stuff - clothes, electronics etc in 'exchange offers'. That's socially acceptable. But we will I'm sure see 'thrift' shops like Oxfam in UK here eventually which will mix charity with the appeal of picking up a bargain.

I just heard of a store called Cypress in Bandra which is encouraging its Page 3 patrons to 'donate' designer clothing from a couple of seasons ago... Remains to be seen whether junta will be OK with buying it.

Sports: Americans watch a lot of sports. And not just on television. They actually turn up at stadiums to cheer their baseball and football and ice hockey teams. Promising atheletes are spotted young and groomed in high school teams. Star performers get scholarships to prestigious universities and can dream of making a pro-sports career.

The situation in India? A passion for sports is very extinguished by practical reality. One must be extremely foolhardy - and extremely brave - to dream of a career even in our no 1 sport. That's because anything other than national level cricket draws either viewers nor sponsors.

Who cares if Maharashtra beats Punjab in Ranji Trophy? It's just lack of imagination that prevents India from having its own brand of heavily promoted and fan-supported leagues in different sports. If LA can have its Lakers and Chicago its Bears, why not the Bangalore Badshahs vs the Peshawar Pashas. Or whatever.

Sport will then have ots rightful place under the sun. And we will have something better to do on Saturday than waste our money at the local mall or multiplex.

Funda: It's all about getting the marketing mix correct. If you look at sports as a huge potential entertainment business - and invest in it - it will yield returns.

We do have a Premier Hockey League (PHL) which is thinking along these lines but it's turned into a non-event. It hasn't had a fraction of the promotion that channels normally do when launching even a new show. And this is a completely new concept.

Apparently the Hyderabad Sultans defeated Sher-e-Jalandhar to claim the title in the PHL finals but only the hardcore sports fans must have been following the matches. The idea just hasn't fired up the man-on-the-street's imagination.

To sum it up, globalising can mean more than watching the same TV shows (or adaptations thereof) and eating the same burgers as the Americans. We in India - young and old have this habit of feeling 'culturally superior'. Let's instead be open to new ideas and as they say in B school, borrow 'best practices' - wherever they may originate.

22 comments:

  1. hey very well thought out and very well put...good post there:)
    for teh record, came here thro chakshu's...:)

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  2. Good thoughts. A long way to go, though.

    But in one of the small cities I travelled, I happened to see the funded library having some really good books which, other wise the people might not have afforded. That is funded by some magnanimous rich people of the town. But again, rare cases those.

    Your writing style is quite nice :-)

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  3. Anonymous2:51 AM

    Good thinking but i would like you to also suggest some solutions/ ideas how these can be achieved.
    The biggest reason why there are not enough libraries is how you make sure that public returns the books? Having the centralised crime record based on your SSN helps a lot. So if you dont return a book it would appear in your history and your life will become miserable even if you manage to avoid the arrest.
    A lot of problems can be solved if we have a central Law & Order Agency like FBI and an identification number for every Indian.

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  4. Hello! Just wanted to say that some colleges are making an attempt to revive the convocation culture. We do have a convocation ceremony in my college. However it is restrcited to the professional courses where the number is still small. Well, its a symbolic thing as it is the university which should hold the ceremony. but well, it doesn't really matter in the end. We get to toss our hats *grin**grin* and that's the best part and oh yea, the photo-op too :D

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  5. Anonymous4:36 PM

    nice post :).. youth curry it is..

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  6. Anonymous5:11 PM

    Very good post. Enjoyed it very much.

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  7. Anonymous6:58 PM

    Came here through Patrix' link-up. Great post- great blog. Thanks for the 'food for thought' quotient that you meet with every post I've read so far. :)

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  8. Extremely relevant and true post! I completely agree with you especially about endowments and public libraries (had just been to a charming one in Georgia yesterday :-)

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  9. Anonymous10:05 PM

    Hey about the Convo thingie Our college (U.I.C.T Matunga) has a ceremony (being autonomous from the Mumai Univ) however it is quite a moribund affair wih even the toppers no attending. however the outgoing batch generally gets together and throws a bash for which they even print their own (mock) degrees... the lack of attendance is generally due to arbit time schedules of the ceremony rather than any other reason...

    And yeah our college (at least) does get a decent amount of endowments from alumni (not necesarily deceased) however not probably as much as the IIT/IIM's do...

    Don't know how that factors into your case.. but there it is...

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  10. Anonymous10:58 PM

    Hi Rashmi,

    I am an IIM grad working in the US. I find your writing quite insightful on the state of the Indian youth and India in general. The latest one is quite true. Do note that we have a very vibrant vernacular language publishing around the country, but it does not figure in the libraries list. I have noticed great collections of hindi novels in higginbothams stores in rail stations, though I would not call it educational. We need more "erudite" writing, not just junk. I come from Kerala, where every village has a reading room with papers, magazines etc, but we do not have the money for libraries as in the US. Also do remember that Carnegie/ Rockfeller had started the library system by donating huge huge sums of money.

    Do look at a site called www.goodnewsindia.com - positive news on India.

    But I do not agree about the article on iPods etc - I think we need not concern ourselves about the kids of the rich & famous - they will be spoiled, splurge money, have latest gadgets etc(not in general though). We need to concern about the middle class kid - they are the huge market and the one marketers need to address.

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  11. Anonymous6:06 AM

    Some of the posts seem to be more from a western perspective & do not necessarily address the Indian context. For example, although the Public Library is a good practice for the States, I am sure more pressing issues are in play in India, namely that we don't have the capital & also the legal system in place to implemnent this. Endowment in financial ways, is only one way, & I am sure you are aware that most big universitties in India have very strong & active global alumni associations (IITs for example) which not only make endowments but also help graduates with job placements & professional networking. The alumni from IIT are establishing IIT as a global educational brand. To say that Indians do not make enough endowments is just not true. The MAMC alumni for example has been strongly active globally for over a few decades and are successful pioneers in the Doctors without borders movement. For sports, again the American culture has promoted that for decades, also the whole marketing machine behind sports franchises is failry huge & competitive. Also how many sports does India comptete at globally? A lot of the comments that you make are relevant in the American context, but I beleive they fail in the Indian context. I am sure you are aware that just duplicating a successful idea does not guarantee success. Rather it would be more helpful, if such ideas could be tweaked to the Indian context, or to generate ideas from & for an Indian perspective would ensure their success. Just my 2 cents !

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  12. Well, it appears that you have never lived in America. I have lived both in India and America, and TRUST ME, you do NOT want to follow america. "what india can learn from america" has some minor issues like eBay and libraries, but it once again reeks of our incessant fascination with gori chamdi.
    believe it or not, living in america sucks. life in india is way better. doing laundry, washing dishes, going to work sans driver, these small things hit you hard when you live here.

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  13. hey very well written..and most importantly most of the comments are equally ponderable..was gr8 to read this..
    i m a masters student at US...n wht u hav written abt libraries, graduation ceremony, garage sale all is so relevent to me...but as somebody said on comment..these are not the prime issues..these are definitely gud practices..but we need to concentrate more on core..somehow i still believe education sector will be the best field to seed the improve india thought..we need to concentrate more upon university educations..neways..list is long...but in all post n comments were really nice...keep writing...

    -X-JAM fan

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  14. Anonymous8:00 PM

    Nice blog, but you can't really compare India with US, the library: Library in the US has a lot more than just books, it is seriously one of their best investments, but i am pretty sure indians read a lot despite the lack of libraries. College libraries here are honestly like a 'mecca' of info. n knowledge, u even get hindustan times here. N ur rgt reading is the best way to increase ur vocabm n hey archies arent bad
    Graduation: It can't really work like in India, undergrad. isnt really a big deal neither is going to college unlike here in US where college is a big deal especially because of the cost
    Endowment: Hey everyone does pay 2% extra tax for education but yea it is true the whole idea of donating to educational institutions does not exist, but loads of rich families like tatas have their own colleges and i wouldnt agree that indians don't donate to org. workin for the society.
    Garage Sales: Indians never throw away anything they just pass it on even if they had garages
    Sports: You are right about marketing the sport, but ppl in india are too obsessed wth cricket can't really help it, also goin for games etc. is not a much of a fun experience in India atleast in from my exp.
    Sorry for such a long comment jst had to cuz your post was really interesting.
    Jatin (www.twentyonwards.blogs.com)

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  15. We also need to learn "DIY" from the Americans. My 2 cents posted here http://ecophilo.blogspot.com/2005/03/do-it-yourself.html

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  16. hi
    came thru an IIM student's recommendation on the 150000 googgly post.
    i like the way you write and things u write about.

    and i must say that number of comments are really impressive...

    just wanted to tell you my view on a few things :

    library : in a few towns i have lived.. normally we had district libraries. but i think more than the library a reading culture is the real driving force that is required.

    i have a dream to establish a library in my small town someday.

    Graduation : i have had 2 chances for attending convos in my life... one i did and second i passed...it doesnt really hold all that charm after first time :)

    ciao
    krishna

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  17. Anonymous10:04 PM

    America may have libraries but I have never seen anybody read there and use what they have read. And as for useful information, Indian newspapers are far better sources of information than americas tabloids and provide enough food for thought than americas libraries with endless volumes of works on the same subject probably copy pasted by one guy after the next as a part of doing his course.I say copy pasted because I have read 3-5 books on each of 4 different subjects and each of them contain almost the same thing only written in a different language and different order. Plus a lot of gas which some genuine writers have accumulated over more than 2 decades of experience but seriously, even an IIM A MBA would find it very difficult to use all that unless he is a super brain like some JEE rank 50 guy. BTW I passed out from IIT Chennai and IIM Cal and I would say confidently that even my collegemates have forgotten all that they learnt at the college and are now learning on the job.

    America may love sports, but that is because they have enough time for things and any overtime work is done by the immigrants. An american does not work overtime or even take a job that he does not like because there is an unemployment dole that is given(that is not even given in India - and even if such a scheme were set up, the amount would be ridiculously small compared to the cost of a survival style living and to get that the officer would demand a 10% commission and release the cheque some 5 years after giving the commission and the postman would then demand a tip for delivering the cheque). A complex phenomenon like this is too large to be described in a blog of 25 lines. Hence such oversimplifications should be avoided.

    I think I shouldnt say anything more becos then nobody will read this. In fact I doubt if anybody had the patience to even reach up to this line but if they did then hopefully what I have mentioned here is something which they either found they could agree with well or completely disagree and hence are looking around to collect as many poiints as they can against me. Either way, keep the blogging going. It is a good forum for expressing personal views.

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  18. Anonymous12:24 PM

    India would be like America if there were a lot of things in the administration that were similar.

    Library: In India corruption is there in every sphere. How can there be a library with good books when the funds for the library are misused in lining the coffers of ppl running the library? But I do know a lot of public libraries which have very good books in the vernacular languages. But by and large people consider only books written in English as good. Is that the fault of the people since knowing English is essential to get any decent employment in India?

    Donations to colleges: When a person does not know whether the amount he donates will be used properly or will just go to some bureaucrat in some regulatory body and fund that guys holiday, why would he donate? In such a case obviously he will bequeath the property only to his son or daughter. And feuds in the family over property are not just an Indian phenomenon. In USA(somehow, it seems to be a god in the eyes of ppl - agreed that the bureaucracy is among the least corrupt and most efficient in the world, but besides that almost everything is wrong), the great Henry Fords family had feuds, Isaac Martin Singers wives and their kids fought over his property for more than 20 years and recently Anna Nicole Smith( who married a guy 50 years older to her)is fighting with the son of that guy who was born to his previous wife for the property.

    Besides the quality of education is not dependent only on having wireless lan or gizmos like that. It mostly depends on getting the right people in and having the right people teaching - which is why ppl from IIT's and IIM's succeed in the whole wide world. At least appreciate the merit oriented admission that happens in the IIT's and IIM's is unlike Harvard where nebody with money can get in(which includes the sons of Indias politicians). One might say that getting an engineering degree in India is no big deal but getting an engineering degree from IIT is definitely a big deal even for a guy who has all the money of India in his pocket. In fact Narayana Murthys son went to study in USA because he could not get into IIT.

    Garage Sale: Why it is not there is because there is always somebody to buy things like these. One just has to tell the maid at the house and the next day you will have some 5 people at your house to buy it. Besides high value items are anyway listed in the newpapers and they are available at 1/4 of their market price whether it is a TV or a motorcycle. Obviously it dosent happen very often because Indians are careful at spending compared to americans and dont buy junk in the first place and even when they do they use it up fully before disposing it. So you dont have a guy who buys an ipod and then dumps it after 2 months because he didnt like the colour. But if you really want a useful item at a throwaway price then go to any of the software cities of India(Bangalore, Pune etc). PPl who are being sent onsite at short notice will be dumping their sparingly used items. But then dont expect other Indians to be as wasteful as americans and hold garage sales every two weeks because nobody in his right senses can afford to be as wasteful as the americans.

    Sports: When a person is not assured of a good future for performing well in sports(we have so many stories of olympic hockey champions and olympic footballers living in penury) why would a talented guy with no financial backing of a big businessman ever risk going into sports? Narain Karthikeyan is into racing not only becos he is talented but also becos he could afford to because of the backing of his fathers business. How many ppl can afford to take a risk like that in India where there is no dole for unemployed people?
    But the public is the consumer and they will only bother abt ppl who are world class. Cricket is the only sport which is world class in India and even that is because Kapil Dev won the world cup for India and that kept the standard high and brought in other talented ppl into cricket. If Kapil Dev had not won the world cup and India had lost in the quarter finals of the 1983 cup then even the fate of cricket in India may be the same as other sports.

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  19. Anonymous6:11 PM

    I dont wish to say much since most of what i'd like to say has been said by others....
    First of all i believe that its definetely not bad to take a few lessons from other countries but its a fact that the socio-economic model of one country may not neccassarily apply to the other one, and hence may not be totally useful.
    More than any public libraries, i think we need some good primary and secondary schools, where a huge chunk of our illiterate population, can learn to read and write.
    And who says we dont go to see our sportsmen perform, provided they 'perform'...thats the key word.!! When it comes to performance we are a cribbing lot. We complain of the facilities, coaches,grounds,equipments,allowances and what not...but have we ever wondered how countries, which have not even half the GDP of india, which span over less than the area of UP alone, manage to win atleast one gold in the Olympics. Cricketers are cursed to have hogged the limelight, but why shouldnt they, afterall they are a performing lot, and crowds do turn up in large numbers to cheer them up....and if they dont then there are serious issues attached...They cant watch cricket,hockey,football matches at the cost of an extra hour of work which can fetch an extra ounce of flour for them...
    All in all, there are things we can learn from americans, but we cannot and more importantly should not, blindly copy them, instead, we should modify these learnings so as to make them applicable to our environment and way of living.

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  20. Good work, I appreciate and encourage your views.

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  21. Excellent post. I told my friend the exact same thing about libraries when we were having a discussion comparing the Indian & American elementary syllabus. The local library in the township I live is much better/bigger than any of the British libraries I was used to in India. The stuff that you learn in school through your syllabus alone is not enough. Even the smartest, most intelligent, hard working Indians are outsmarted by their American counterparts through their negotiation and communication skills. They learn these skills through the extra curricular activities they get involved when they are school, which we don't get exposed to.

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  22. Hi Nice post. But I think the main thing how we can improve the situation.
    Library - Well, in India we do get lot of things to read generally. I agree to the fact that there are not enough books etc but the solution could be donating the books you have at home from so many years, which you know that you are not going to read it again. As the libraries are self suffieciently funded, this could work.
    Graduation Ceremony - Well, in US its a big deal if you pass out from high school or college but in India its not. But I think we should have a graduation ceremony for Bachelors or Masters degree. It feels good.
    And about the numerous universities, government should come up with something to tackle this problem and this in turn will stop the rush to get in to the top 10 colleges. But it will be long since this happens.

    Recycle - Well, in India this process has existed from ages. We never throw anything away. We pass it to someone. In developed countries, recycling nature has started recently on plastics, papers etc. But in India the recycling process in on a large scale. We even dismantle a car and use the parts for other things. The raddi or kabaddi wala will take anything from your house and use it again somehow.

    But the main thing is there should be more effort from each individual person towards these things to make them work rapidly.

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