Culture- a word which conjures a variety of vivid visions spanning the different realms of Art, Music, Dance, Cuisine, and not surprisingly also Organizations & Management.
A shared, learned and symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that shapes and influences perception and behaviour.
A weapon so powerful that it can actually make or break- an organization, a society or even a nation.
Why are the nuances of culture at times fascinating on one end and frustrating on the other; subtle on one end and startling on the other; creative on one end and conflicting on the other...?
The answers lie not just in books and wisdom of great teachers, managers or leaders around us but more deeply in the everyday, yet complex life experiences of the common man- experiences at home, at work, in personal and professional life, as a child, as a student, as a worker , as a family person, as a citizen.
It is improbable if not impossible to sum up the culture of a society or a group in a paragraph , a page or even a full publication, since to truly know a ‘Culture’ is to live that culture.
However, today with limitation of time and resources and yet addition of multiple responsibilities, its an utopian thought to visualize ‘living out’ the cultural kaleidoscope in real life...so here is an attempt to take a sneak peek into the ‘lives’ of these diverse cultures- an attempt to showcase their uniqueness, their eccentricities, their similarities, their convergence and their divergence.
And Hmmmm....I am not going to write about religion or race based societies- Christian , Muslim or Hindu or cover any technical details like demographics, ethnic influences, constitutional equality---No, Sir, We are going to cover ‘Culture’ – unadulterated and pure as it is.
I also fully realize that nation is not synonymous for culture- within each nation , there may be tens if not hundreds of different cultural influences.
Yet for ease of our fellow readers, we will look at the ‘National Culture’ as the baseline since for some of our fellow readers who are not platinum jet-setters and international travelers, even this glimpse will be like the few raindrops on parched earth.
Hence, please fasten your seat-belt and suspend (read- freeze) your judgement since this series does not aim to solicit critical acclaim or prejudice based disapproval or split-hair accuracy !!
I am going to write for the joy of writing and spreading the infectious bug of ‘curiosity’ about other cultures. Since once you become curious, you will be able to accept these divergent cultures much more openly in your life. Lets laugh with them, feel their pathos and ‘live’ in their shoes through this window of time, we call a writer’s portal.
I am an Indo-Canadian so why don’t we begin with the country still widely perceived as the ‘Land of Snake-Charmers’, my country of origin- India and glimpse at the Indian Cultural psyche!
Where do I begin? India – the name has its roots in the great Indus river and just like its name sake has a cultural heritage equally old. There are quite a few cultural nuances which I am sure will stump our Western Compatriots apropos their Indian ‘Friends & Co-Workers’.
Indians are a patriotic lot, everyone knows how we love to celebrate all our illustrious leaders and freedom fighters of yesterday, sometimes in homage... yet sometimes in compulsion!!!
Nearly 99.9% of our infrastructure (roads, bridges, hospitals, community centres) is named after some political leader or his dynastic heir/heiress!
Indians are very fond of giving directions. You will never ever find an Indian who is shy to give directions, at great pain to himself (and occasionally to the recipient!), even if half the time we are wrong!
Indians adore movies and cricket...not necessarily in that order...Filmstars and Cricketers are idolized perhaps even more than the religious deities and its more than often aspired as a career path by millions of wannabes with star and dust (stardust!) in their eyes.
Indians love their religion and are willing to squash anyone who hurts their religious sentiments- individual or an entire government notwithstanding. We love bowing to the Supreme Force- the almighty- the mystical- the Gods, Goddesses, Prophets and Messiahs and why not after all we have 860 Million of them in Hindu religion alone, at last count!
Indians adore fixing things and by ‘fixing’ I donot imply the tool-kit/hammer-chisel kind of fixing, albeit fixing things in terms of setting them ‘right’. In traditional Indian lingo its called ‘Jugad’ (pronounced- Ju-gaar’) and we love using ‘Jugad’ to set things right- whether its dealing with a traffic cop who wants to fine us for bad driving on the road, breaking out of queue to expedite our file in a govt office or coping against anything which Murphy’s law has to pit against our wits!
Majority of Indians to an extent ‘still’ crave anything ‘Foreign’ (pronounced- phoren) whether its girls, gadgets or goods (read- chocolates, perfumes, clothes- the works!). There is a huge demand for duplicate ‘foreign-made international’ goods in Indian Markets (Made in ‘China’, Branded as ‘American’!)
Indians have an age-old tradition of giving their children ‘pet names’ which are nowhere close to their real names (Mr. Bunty might be Mr. Ritesh in real life or Ms. Bubli might be Ms. Rita!)
Indians have a truly unique culinary and kitchen-maintenance style too. Everything we eat is savoured in onion, garlic and tomatoes. We love taking ‘Indian’ snacks wherever it says ‘No Food Allowed’. Raid our fridge and you will observe that we are extremely fond of keeping leftover food in as many bowls as possible!
And how can we forget the holistic Indian Family-Our parents seldom care what ‘our’ friends think, but more often than not care more about what our ‘uncles’ and ‘aunties’ think...We love to travel with an entourage- We need atleast 5 persons to see us off or receive us whether we are traveling by bus, train or plane! When our parents meet complete strangers and talk for a few minutes, we discover the person turns out to be a distant cousin! Our parents affectionately don't still don’t seem to realize in the 21st Century, that the quality of overseas telecommunication has significantly improved in the last two decades, and still scream at the top of their lungs when calling us abroad asking about our welfare!!
I think that is a good dose of information about the ‘uniqueness’ of the Indian Culture which you can leverage to understand your next Hire, Interviewee, Co-worker or Acquaintance that much better :-)
Till we meet again with the next slide in the Kaleidoscope- The Arabs!
