CONTRAST : Setting 100.

This is a late post. Actually, i wrote this when we came back but forgot to post it.

So, we went on a 10-11 day OFFICIAL educational tour of Europe visiting NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM, FRANCE, SWITZERLAND & LEICHTENSTEIN.

Many things have already been said and many pictures posted, so I am just going to tell few things which i found to be opposite of what we have here in India. Good or bad, these things are in CONTRAST.

1) TRAFFIC.

HERE Four Wheelers are given the most importance then comes the number of two wheelers and then finally the pedestrians, THERE pedestrians are the most important (probably because they cant afford to lose out on their already meagre population), then comes the bicycle walas, then the two wheelers and finally the four wheelers.

They have these pedestrians red lights everywhere so basically when it is red for them they are supposed to stop but if somehow u miss it then the four wheeler would stop and first let you pass. HERE we dont even have space for pedestrians leave aside the red lights and in your wildest of dreams can u imagine some guy in an audi stopping for some old aged woman trying to cross the road.

2) PRIVACY.

HERE you can see people concerned more about other people's private affairs than theirs, THERE they are so much particular about their privacy that they wouldnt even allow you to stand much close to them.

One of my friends who was standing with his friend in our INDIAN WAY of being really close was asked by a foreigner if he was engaged to her and if not why is he so close to her and invading her privacy.

3) FOOD.

HERE unless said otherwise everything is pure veg and THERE unless said otherwise everything is pure non-veg. They have this burger in McD named as McVeg Chicken. I still dont know if it was veg or non-veg.

4) PEOPLE.

I have a contradictory opinion in this. According to me, HERE people are more warm and welcoming, THERE people are more well behaved but are less welcoming. There also i saw this difference between welcome of people in rural and urban areas. So in Amsterdam city people were not warm and welcoming whereas in the countryside they were much more responsive, welcoming and smiling which is the case HERE as well.

5) WORK.

HERE people are much more hardworking due to the hard conditions and high level of competition. THERE most of the work performed is through machines and when it comes to doing it manually they are KAAMCHOR according to me. Now consider one situation, in a hotel like Radission what level of hospitality would you expect HERE- top class, right..??. And if not found upto the mark and complained about the services would drastically improve and the non-performing staff might be replaced as well. THERE the hospitality levels were quite low first because of the inherent KAAMCHORI and secondly because of lack of fear of being reprimanded due to less replacement options available (low population).

6) GENDER EQUALITY.

HERE we know what is the status of women in the society, though improving but still low. THERE I found women more empowered than the opposite gender. I am not exaggerating but found more women drivers than males. Other thing was smoking which is considered a taboo for women atleast here. At one airport, there were more than 80% women in the smoking room which was unseen before.

7) INFRASTRUCTURE.

India is a developing country and hence the infrastructure is also not commensurate with the huge population we have. THERE the infra is much more than what is required. In a small country like Leichtenstein having a population of just 30000, the number of houses, roads and vehicles were good enough to serve atleast 20 lakh of our population. The modes of transport they use is all across the spectrum- buses, monorails, metros, inland waterways and prolific highways whereas HERE we are dependent on our personal vehicles to travel due to lack of public transport.


8) LIFESTYLE.

Due to the inherent habit of Savings we have, we tend to spend less on things that we can afford also. I am not saying that is bad but THERE they are natural spenders and not used to save which results in wealth and prosperity being visible first hand. Smoking and Drinking are not a taboo there. People aint judged bcoz of these habits whereas HERE the moment someone gets to know that you drink or smoke you are termed a bad company and infact a bad person. Ofcourse because of these reasons the lifestyle related diseases are more there, but still I would say they would be much more happy dying knowing that they lived their lives king size rather than struggling for roti, kapda and makaan.


I was really apprehensive before going there, just didnt had the excitement. But I must say i was proved wrong. The experience we had was superb and is now a lifelong memory. I would always like to go back there but I know the experience wont be the same as the PEOPLE wont be the same.

Thanks to our academy for giving us such a profound experience.