The Traffic Metaphor?

Everybody knows the terrible situation of traffic in India, if they do not call it fantastic.

Even Indians themselves admit the traffic chaos.

When I was first in traffic on the bus, I was surprised that everybody ignored the lines, as well as the vehicles nearby - they did whatever they wanted to perform on the road. The white lines became a mere decoration, making the road look modern. Everyone on the road competed with each other to get ahead. I saw motorists driving extremely close to our bus, and I felt that I could reach them without effort.
You see, it is chaotic because there are no rules on the road.

I cannot imagine how I could survive in traffic like this if I would drive the vehicle. Dr. Alvey said that Indians seem to have some sort of eye contact or other metaphoric ways to interact in traffic. Then they are able to stay safe in a traffic, which seems to be ridiculous to outsiders. That sounds mystical. But this statement seems to have reflected the complicated interpersonal relationships in collective India, which creates cultural barriers. I believe that rules are very important to keep everything in order, while Indians view it totally different – no “static” rules can work well in a dynamic world. That results in Indians’ ignorance to rules when they are indoctrinated to make judgments based on the current situation and interaction with the surroundings. This is quite complicated (to the outsiders), but is also as simple (for those who grew up in the culture) as the air they breathe everyday. According to the Traffic Metaphor, Indians believe that there is always a way. In other words, no rule is a rule because everybody believes so.

Then the traffic metaphor mentioned in the book makes sense to me. The chaotic traffic exists and works surprisingly well in the context – it is a reflection of the culture.

Want to survive in India? Begin in traffic.



P.S.
The photo above is from Don, and was taken in the bus.

Video was taken in Delhi old town when we were riding a three wheeler.

India and China

When I first arrived at Delhi, I was surprised by what I saw, especially the street scene on the way to our hotel. It was the start of the collapse of my impression, or rather my expectation of India. Every time when I heard about India, it was mentioned on par with China as the biggest two emerging markets in the world. That gave me an impression that the development in India was not too far behind China, at least to a fair extent. And when it comes to Delhi, I expected to see a city that was well developed - however, I could not deny my disappointment.

I was fully aware that there was always somewhere that would be below my expectation, but that should have not been nearly everything I saw such as the poor buildings, as well as the poor construction of sidewalks. I could hardly imagine the community for India Air Force in the capital city of a country being so poor – my dorm in a small town of China was much better 10 years ago.

The more I observed what was going on, the more questions that came out. The population of India is almost the same as that of China, but I do not know why I did not see as many tall buildings (with 6+ stories) as those in China, especially in a big metro as Delhi. Let alone the quality of the construction, I cannot understand why the number of the buildings seems to be a lot smaller, even not reach half of that in China, while there are a great number of people everywhere. Where do the people live? According to what we have read about India extended families, the best guess could be that there are way more extended families that live in a same household in India, and the per capital living area is much smaller.

If this is the case, the situation in Delhi would be quite distinct from that in Beijing, the political capital of China. And the two photos of city scenes above seem to further support my impression about Delhi from Beijing. In my opinion, rather than a capital city in a promising economy, most of the times, Delhi looks like a big town.

When my brain did the comparison automatically, I could not help thinking about some major themes in the book, We Are Like That Only. It attributes the promising future of India partially to its democratic political structure when compared to China, which is led by a communist party. It argues that due to the democracy, though now India is falling behind China in economic development such as GDP, there is no doubt that India will catch up and keep growing slowly but firmly in next a few decades. Though it is not directly pointed out in the book that China might slow down and may have problems in maintaining long-term growth rate and social stability, it made me feel that way.

I agree that a democratic system has many advantages over a socialist one to some extent. Though what I have seen is just a tip of the iceberg, I still would like to work on a bit about this argument based on what I know. Grown up in a socialist society, sometimes I may complain about the unfair things happened in the society due to the one-party-dominate political situation. But with the comparison of the current situation in China and India, I think the somewhat arbitrary (I do not know whether it is the right word) system is more effective and efficient at an early phase of development. Since there is no need to reach a consensus for every issue, either big or small, in a socialist system, what needs to be done can be approved quickly and executed immediately. Different from the "mature" western democracy, the Indian traditions, including the custom of corruption, as well as the preference for doing things slowly, have created barriers for creating and maintaining an effective democratic system. Those negative aspects in Indian society do drag the pace of economic development. That might partially explain the poor infrastructure in Delhi, the capital city of the country. (In my opinion, because of the functional importance of a capital city to a state, that city will be allocated with more government funds and other resources to make sure it can fulfill the political and economic function.)

When it comes to long-term viability, I do not think socialist government necessarily would face more problems than a democratic one, because of the ever-changing nature of the world. For example, socialist system in China has incorporated some democratic attributes, as well as the market economy. And in the information age, the government is able to and needs to adjust its structure as well as the way of doing things so that it can maintain its governing status.

Anyway, I do not foresee any big slump in next several decades for China. Considering China’s development over India and the current negative aspects in Indian governing system, it still would be a long time for India to catch up – in case that the democratic system exceeds in the long run.
Let's keep an eye on them.



P.S.
Both photos above are from internet. The first one is Beijing, and the second is city scene of part of Delhi.
Video was taken in Delhi old town when we were riding a three wheeler.

From the interesting image of McDonalds in India

Learnt from the trip to W+K, many Indians perceived McDonalds as a fast food chain from China. That was a really interesting and surprising discovery because fast food symbolizes western modern culture. If my memory is correct, what led to the weird impression is one product McDonalds offered in India - noodles.

That problem might have risen from the process of customization to that market. McDonalds has done a good job in customizing in international markets, including the Indian market. For example, it customized the menu with big changes of incorporating Veg solutions and replacing the whole beef lines with chicken products. This greatly caters to the specific Indian market needs that 1) beef is not widely accepted due to the sacred position of cattle, and 2) the large proportion of vegetarians. However, noodles, which might not have been in the core menu, led to the ill-perception.

Though someone may argue that the perceived origin is not important, this does alert us to the fact that even the most trivial and seemingly irrelevant things in marketing practice would lead to some strange and unfavorable results. When considering that fast food represents the western spirit, I am wondering how the noodles situation led Indians to come up with that impression. Does the nature of fragmented India lead the natives to being more detail-oriented? I do not think if it happens in other Asian countries, the same customization will result in the same impression.

Now noodles have been removed from McDonald’s menu, and the reason and mechanism behind it is a mystery. But that does remind me of the fact that I have to always keep in mind: you can never fully understand your customers, and every subtle thing makes a big change.

Sari

A nation that is proud of its heritage.

A country in which everybody is a recognized individual.

I know I have kept on talking about customization, but that was what I learnt from the book, We Are Like That Only. The book is about understanding the consumer India, focusing on conveying the idea that there is never enough attention paid to the distinctions of every fragment of the market. This emphasis has reflected one major characteristic that is shared by the entire Indian culture, in which a great number of distinct groups coexist peacefully. That is, the pursuit of recognition. The strong desire for recognition might be due to the collective nature of this culture where people stay together more often and its people place greater value on others' opinions, when compared to an individualist society. This pursuit is manifested in Indians’ everyday life.

Take Sari as an example. When I was trying to find a duplicate for a piece of sari fabric, every seller told me it is extremely hard, if not impossible. The "artists" (from the word, you can tell their high respect for handcraftmanship) create only one set of sari fabric at one time. Even though they may produce another one with the same pattern, they can never get an exact copy of the previous one due to the nature of handcraftmanship. Human beings can never do exact copying, let alone the complicated process of making the fine sari. The complicated decoration and dye during the process, rules out the possibility of machine production of sari. This led to the uniqueness of sari.

Behind the sari-must-have mindset is differentiation that is needed for being recognized in crowd. A Sari is some sort of means to differentiate one from another. The more, the better sari you have, indicates a higher status because you have more only-for-you to show your distinctiveness. As reflected in We Are Like That Only, Indians need something made only for them. This can also be used to describe individuals in Indian society. There are many ways to achieve the goal of getting recognized in India. I think the highly valued handcraftmanship is a good manifestation of the pursuit in India culture. Those means help an individual (in the sari case, a female) to be more easily, and frequently recognized by their surroundings. That also indicates the necessary of the consideration of special context. For example, if not in India, wearing a sari might not be a positive recognition, because it does not have the symbolic meaning of that in India. That is why I did not get one even though I was dying to own one, if not more - there are hardly any appropriate occasions for me to wear one when I got out of India.

From elephant ride

Fun on an elephant today.

I had been excited since I opened my eyes in black because I had been looking forward to the elephant ride day for so long.

From childhood, I have read many stories about elephant, and watched cartoons and programs featured with elephants. However, the visual familiarity as well as the strong terrible smell did not weaken my enthusiasm when I stood in the elephant station looking up at those elephants.

They were beautiful, strong, and peaceful. I did not know why I came up with the feeling of peace when I was in a state of excitement, in an environment that you could never call it pleasant. But I felt that way. Everyone was talking, and I could hear the sounds from the road - it was noisy in the station, but nobody was bothered by that. They looked like they were enjoying their leisure time when they were actually doing their work to live a life. Indians are never in a hurry – this may have something to do with their optimistic belief that there is always a way. Sounds like elephant, they usually move slowly and are tame, but you can never ignore their power – they were horrifying weapons in war.

This led me to think about the female in India. As a daughter, she is discriminated from her birth, and thus obedience is a highly valued virtue for a good female. But when she becomes a mother, she gains an overwhelming power that is almost unlimited. And the interesting transition of roles is mainly reflected in the interactive dynamics between female and male. She is the burdensome liability of the original family, then incurs abuse from her husband and his family when entering another life stage. Only until she has a boy baby, her situation totally changed - her position skyrockets, her power explodes. As revealed in "Mere paas ma hai," the mother represents the source of everything to the Indian imagination. Meanwhile, the mother is still the wife and daughter. It seems so hard to resist the temptation of abusing the sudden gift when the female have been so depressed before. Again, Indian wisdom demonstrates its power: the legitimacy of the almighty lies in responsibility over the family, especially the kids.

Does this sound familiar? Remember the discussion in Traffic Metaphor? Indians do not care about “set” rules because they have a non-verbal philosophy to determine and to feel the way of doing things right. In this case, though it is said she, as a mother, “faced no censure and no limits,” every Indian, including the mums, knows that her power is only endowed over her kids, and the bottom line is “acting in the interests of her children.” Maybe in that way they can balance in those contradictive situations.

However the thoughts above are generated based upon the reading rather than the first-hand observation – it seems that the power of mother’s role is limited within family settings. My statement is based on my experience in India. Outside of the five star hotels or other westernized place such as W+K Delhi office, is Male India. Waiters served us in restaurants; buses were full of males; tailors I visited were males; vendors I saw in the markets were males; our tour guides are male… I saw females only in some family-related activities, such as ironing service, selling and buying produce in community market. Well, this might just be another manifestation of the Indian way.

Another interesting discovery was that all the elephants serving in the summer palace are FEMALE, while they are all controlled by MALE. Does this sound like a metaphor that manifests the situation between the two genders in India? You got it.

P.S.
The first photo is from Don, depicting the residence community where women involve in the family related affairs.
The third photo was taken in elephant station.

About the gods

From my childhood, I have been quite interested in the myths and folk stories. Thus, one thing that interests me a lot is the system of gods in Hinduism.

Compared to Christianity, within which people believe there is only one almighty God, the Hindu god system is similar to that of Greece: every god represents one or several related characteristics or issues. However, different from the Greek system, within Hindu system there are many subsystems, such as Shaivism and Vaishnavism, in which the responsibilities and the name varies a little bit. This makes the gods system even more complicated. Another distinction from the Greek system is that in India, the god system is more likely to be the religion of somebody rather than a mere myth or story. Most of Indians worship their god(s), but they are able to choose whatever god they believe. There are no rights or wrongs to worship a god that is different from another's. And it is so common to see a muslin temple within a Hindu community.

Religion in India, from this, I pulled out another metaphor for the Indian Way. We can easily tell from the phenomenon the complexity and openness of the fragmented India. It provides me with some hints and justifications for understanding the major theme in We Are Like that Only - as revealed in the book title - the importance of understanding customization. In the book, customization is repeatedly mentioned. Not only does it emphasize the importance of keeping that in mind when entering Indian market, the Indian wisdom is teaching us about true customization. There are so many differences, if not trivial, between individuals. Considering the collective nature of the Indian society, rather than extremely detailed customization, to show your care and respect to the values of others (markets) is the key to apply the true customization. Because of the complexity, openness is needed for people to survive. And being truly open means that people living in a same community have to show greatest respect to each other without any violation. That is what the harmonious Indian culture as a live textbook tells us about customization, which is integrated in the culture.

Now, you see that "We Are like that only" not only describes the entire India society, but also reflects the spirit within.

P.S.
Photo is from Don, taken at an airport
Video was taken at a family temple.

Partially ethnographic

After 3 weeks working on ethnographic exploration, I realized I did all my “research (observation)” without getting rid of the influence of “ethnocentrism.” It has nothing to do with whether or not my origin country is powerful or relatively supreme. When I refer to ethnocentrism, in this case, I mean that I applied the MY perspective only. That is not necessarily wrong and is contributive to some degree, as ethnography does take the subjective aspects into account.

However, after reviewing my blogs and notes, I found out that what I chose to observe, and how I interpret phenomena were greatly influenced by where I have been, including my experience at home and in my current resident city Dallas. For example, when I talked about street food, Chinese street food came out first. Based on my street food experience in China, I set up the expectation for the street food in India. Firstly, similar to China, India is an Asian country, and is said that food is kind of a focus of daily life. So I expect some mouth watering food of various types. Considering the level of development in China, America and India, I was fully aware of the risk of eating on street in India. Then finally I completed the general expectation about Indian street food: yummy, but dangerous.

Another example is humanity issues. Different from my cohort, I hardly noticed or realized any humanity issues in India. I am not familiar with this topic, nor will I work on that issue actively. Thus I am culturally blind to this topic, and I would not discover any problems that my colleagues may have realized.

While I appreciated the opportunity of working with a smart group and exchanging ideas, I still knew nothing about what the native Indians’ thoughts were. Given that we failed to finish our exploration in India after the bombing happened in Mumbai, we were not able to truly “immerse” in the culture/market, which is the principal requirement in doing ethnographic research. Compact schedule of tourist visit in the first half was designed to prepare us for the ethnographic immersion which was supposed to be finished in the last half of our journey.

We only did partial observation based on our own perspectives. But a more sophisticated observation for a sound ethnographic research should incorporate the perspectives from the natives because an outsider holds a totally different view. It is emphasized everywhere that India is a fragmented culture within which a great many of groups coexist harmoniously. Indians themselves are holding different perspectives from each other. Considering my own experience, culturally blindness is another big barrier for us, a group of foreign students who have never been in India and maybe knew little about India before the trip, to understand Indians without touching the everyday India. Even though within the group we can exchange our thoughts, there was still something missing in my understanding about India.

Anyway, the trip still makes sense as I learnt from a somewhat negative approach. It is also interesting to generate ideas from an outsiders’ perspective because I was trying to find out the similarity rather than the differences. Wisdom in the book has manifested itself in this incomplete ethnographic process and proved its importance to reach a sound research outcome in a cultural setting.