100 Reasons I love America
#61 Today
The Supreme Court ruling today is a reason I love America. India is not there yet.
#62 Advice
One recurring theme I have noticed in America is how people don’t jump to advice you at the first available opportunity. Sometimes, despite explicitly asking for advice, I have had people tell me, “It’s really for you to decide, Ramya.” If the decision needs you personally to make the decision and you are just asking someone for advice because you can’t bring yourself to take the decision, people will call you out on it and tell you exactly that. Indians, on the other hand, cannot resist advising and telling you exactly how you should live your life. I sometimes have to fight the impulse to tell people exactly how I would handle the situation (and hence they should do something similar also!) but I am slowly learning. Sometimes, the decision and the decision-maker are the only ones that can take the step forward together. The rest of us are just spectators and that is ok. In this play, we are not meant to be the protagonist or the advisor.
#63 Society and Decisions
So many of the decisions taken in India are based on what “they would say”. Those people in society that have this magnetic influence on how you lead your life. ‘Why I think this is the right thing to do’ is as important as ‘what they will think if I do this’. I don’t see that quite as much in America.
#64 Clean air
Delhi is supposed to have the world’s most toxic air :/ Eventually I guess, the whole world will catch up and we will probably become immune to toxic air. Until that day, I’d say the air in America is cleaner. A breath of fresh air to love America!
#65 Smooth roads
One of the first things I noticed when I landed in America in 2000 — the wide, smooth roads. How smooth the drive was! And the drivers didn’t honk unless you made a mistake!
#66 Lines
The line etiquette, which is the term I use to coin the behavior of people waiting in a line to say get tickets to a movie or buy a snack or get on a train, is just better defined here. There is not much pushing, jostling, protecting the physical space around you that is needed to stand in line in America. I like that.
#67 Gawking
The last I remember, walking as a single woman in India, meant inviting stares from strange men on the road. The gawking was so common, I just learnt to ignore it, look down at my feet, pick up my pace and get myself out of that situation. I haven’t had to do that for the past 15 years here.
#68 Emergency services
Traffic rules are respected here and vehicles predictably move out of the way to let an emergency vehicle through. Human lives matter and I respect that about America.
#69 Animals & Humans
Rabid dogs on the road, cows walking about, the typical scenes that come to your head when you think of Indian streets unfortunately was a true picture at least of the India that I recall from my head. Animals and humans jostling for space sandwiched between vehicles on congested streets. It is not a scene I often see here and I am glad for that.
#70 Just adjust, Sir!
India is all about adjusting to situations. I remember the phrase, “Please adjust a little, Sir!” so often from the time I grew up in India. Perfection could be attained but at a heavy cost. There was always a little glitch, something a little off and we had to adjust and make peace with it. Architecting the life you want within your means did not always result in the structure you had in your head. It was full of duct tapes and at an angle you had not envisioned for it and you just adjusted a little and carried on with life. I am having to use duct tape a lot less in America and the structure doesn’t lean as much here from the original blueprint. It may not be perfect but you can get pretty close and that’s a neat thing.
(Want to read my other reasons to love America as an Indian immigrant?)
