Maximum (Rude) City
A decent amount of senseless rambling follows below on whether Mumbai deserves to wear the crown of the Rudest City in the world. Read it, if you are not interested.
Reader's Digest conducted this survey to sort out cities in terms of their politeness ratio. Mumbai's name was thrown in being the more populated, popular and possibly the most polite city in India. And what are the frivolous parameters to decide politeness? Simply whether people hold the door for someone behind, whether they pick up someone's strewn papers on the pavement and whether the local chachaji at the grocery store acknowledges, smiles and thanks his customers.
Undoubtedly, the West will reign supreme with these politeness coefficients. These are based on their culture and their way of life. People in India might not abide well by those rules. They have their own politeness rules. For instance in Mumbai, you can bet every single penny, that if you lose your wallet or cellphone in a taxi or rickshaw, you are bound to get it back. And what about those so-thought pesky neighbours, who always call you home and treat you, when your parents are out of town; something I am experiencing right now. Don't you forget the Mumbai floods, when the city poured out its water and love on every suffering human and animal. Ethically, if I am morally nice, then do I need that courtesy to please? My advice : In Rome, simply do what the Romans do.
As David Gregory Roberts in his autobio "Shantaram" rightly says that we Indians might not show our love upfront, but the love in our hearts is enormous. This is not to say that Mumbaikars are the most polite in the world. The catch is that you can't judge politeness on a specific set of parameters.
By the way, am not too sure that the Latinos hold doors for others. I think, they just wait and ram it onto the next person.
Reader's Digest conducted this survey to sort out cities in terms of their politeness ratio. Mumbai's name was thrown in being the more populated, popular and possibly the most polite city in India. And what are the frivolous parameters to decide politeness? Simply whether people hold the door for someone behind, whether they pick up someone's strewn papers on the pavement and whether the local chachaji at the grocery store acknowledges, smiles and thanks his customers.
Undoubtedly, the West will reign supreme with these politeness coefficients. These are based on their culture and their way of life. People in India might not abide well by those rules. They have their own politeness rules. For instance in Mumbai, you can bet every single penny, that if you lose your wallet or cellphone in a taxi or rickshaw, you are bound to get it back. And what about those so-thought pesky neighbours, who always call you home and treat you, when your parents are out of town; something I am experiencing right now. Don't you forget the Mumbai floods, when the city poured out its water and love on every suffering human and animal. Ethically, if I am morally nice, then do I need that courtesy to please? My advice : In Rome, simply do what the Romans do.
As David Gregory Roberts in his autobio "Shantaram" rightly says that we Indians might not show our love upfront, but the love in our hearts is enormous. This is not to say that Mumbaikars are the most polite in the world. The catch is that you can't judge politeness on a specific set of parameters.
By the way, am not too sure that the Latinos hold doors for others. I think, they just wait and ram it onto the next person.
posted by Tejas at 10:23 AM
1 Comments:
Very well said! I'm not sure about your dig on the Latinos, though. When they'd see a newspaper drop, they'd probably stop, bend down, read the headlines, stand up, continue walking, and curse Spain's win in Germany.
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