India from the eyes of a Chinese student

[DaTang]

original post is too long, I am picking out some more important points to translate, the whole text is here, google translate is always your most
trustful friends:
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What is REAL Sino-Indo relationship? How they actually see us?
Based upon my personal experience, I would say sino-Indo relationship is nothing but complicated. If I must summarize it, I would say, cold in political, lukewarm at best in people to people and one side heat in business. In a nutshell, sino-indo relationship is kept to room temperature. In political domain, indian are indifferent or hostile to Chinese, I experienced this coldness when I applied visa. Despite their well-known "office efficiency", hostility towards Chinese citizen contributed more to even slower processing. The denial of entrance rate is comparatively high, checking of background is extremely tough, all aside, it is impossible to get a long-stay visa, you are lucky if you got 3 months, but this is far from enough, you need to renew it by the time you start, because it took them 45 days to renew one, I just don't have a clue how on earth they can do things with such a speed. Bugger! I am on my student visa, I have been waiting for more than 1 month to get one, business visa is even harder, and there is no grace period that allows one businessman to stay and apply for renewal, you must leave on the dot. Once you arrived, the local police and their national security will interrogate you to an extend of being intolerable ( this OP is a female student I guess from her style in writing, indian cops are just harassing her by doing so). Foreigners who stay longer time must apply for another permit, and as well, it need to be renewed and it took equally long. Anyways, the math is you should allow half of your stay time to submit your application of renewal. It is the India speed. I am not only saying government, other institutions, be it tourist agency or enterprises, things will be the same, be careful with your visa before you even go there, they charge you several dollars if you got expired due to the waiting.

 

[DaTang]

So I took the hint even before my departure, but I took off anyways, to Bangalore. I have always been interested by this country, love their ambiance of dances and nature in full fledge. It was local time 11 PM when I was landing, through my window, I was shocked by the brightness and lights. A birdview of city in night is aweing, the town seemed be wrapped in a gigantic light ball, shinning and brilliant, the layout the city is very large. But with a closer look you will see a unique light pattern, Bangalore is lit up by blocks, some areas are super bright, some areas are pure darkness with some fade lights, must be candles. I was told after landing, due to the lack of power, Bangalore's power supply is by quota, some districts get power during some time periods, some don't, they rotate like this every week.

 

[DaTang]

Because it is a plateau and air is thinner, you feel wearied out after your exercise. Ultra-violet are strong, many skin diseases can be spotted on the local people and more on animals. Speaking of animal, you will see lots of stray dogs on streets, but you don't see many different species, most of them are kind of pointing nose and small eyed dog, must be some species of the local area. They are just immobile, budging as less as they can even cars approaching, and they lay down again after the cars passed by. If you look from a remote view, they are like bunch of dead dogs, half of them have infected skins, impetigo or something like it. Eeeks, disgusting. The streets witness a prosperous city though, even the traffic is chaotic.

view from a rick saw

Domestic cars filled up streets, look at the sticker on the back windshield, mock up NYPD or Indian Jewish David Sart?

 

[DaTang]

Is life in India expensive? I bet you everything YES and Fairly. Anything sold in supermarket charges more than in China and quality inferior. Even plastic product are expensive, name any plastic basin, it will be priced at 100 more rupees, some 10 RBM ( while in China, 2-3 rmb). In grocery section, you have a wide choice of vegetables and meats, but not in other foods. The Napa cabbages have a similar price tag with pork, any greens are charged fairly high except cabbage, while meat is not that cheap either. Good side of the story is spare ribs is cheaper than pork, variety chicken meat ( like chicken gizzards) is cheaper than Chicken meat by itself. Indian government forbids drinking and smoking in government building and promotes a non-smoke, non-alcohol society, so you rarely see people here drinking or smoking, but that largely due to their life style rather than government policy. My indian friend told me, the weather is their nectar, no need to use anything more to get high.

Consumer Products priced at a very High tag, especially in electronics:

 

[DaTang]

Huge gaps between Metropolitan Cities and Small towns, small towns and villages
Metropolitan cities are more westernized in life style, you see elites from every professions. Entertainment and Shopping sprees are not something you will be missing. Well, speak of entertainment, Indian cities really don't have that much of them, my experience tells me that except for some religious activities or celebrations, plus traditional holidays, I actually have not seen any major entertainment events here). Market-wisely, India is still behind in business, although in big cities you see a lot of shops, but as a whole, India does not consume much. India villages put you back to the Middle Age, Power supply is a severe drawback of the rural development, a big percentage of countryside have never gotten access to electricity. Religion still dominates these places, I told them how Chinese villages enjoyed easy access of power but they were not at all impressed. Rather, they think it is not good, if you can burn firewood, why do you waste that much and pollute yourself to generate electricity.

 

[DaTang]

Temples are what you see the most wherever you go, be it stone plate hindi temples or mosques.
If you walking on the street, you are always greeted by some young men, they came up in group and tried to initiate a chat or strike you a conversation, they asked about everything of you and they cared very much how you view India. They pose a lot of questions, such as "do you get used to live in India?", "Do you like Indian food?""¦ list goes on, they look really simple and kind hearted ( oh my god, who is really simple here if she knows about real intention of these young men, luckily she did not get her ass touched). Indian kids have the most innocent smile in the world, even in big city like in Bangalore, you will encounter such a beautiful smile everywhere, shy, timid, simple, so pure, so remote and so used to be familiar to us, smiles only can be recalled from memory when China has not been infected by dirty capitalism market profit driven mentality,

 

[DaTang]

If you have to compare, Bangalore can be matched with Guangzhou, merchandise is rich in selection, you pretty much get everything you can think of here. But most of them expansive except they are on sale, Branded designer cloth, especially, is much cheaper during big sale seasons, India has two holiday seasons you can find sales, one is Diwali and one is Christmas, Diwali is around October, their holiday sales are very good, much cheaper than China's regular sale.
Shopping area in Bangalore:

Indian is a nation full of think out of box ideas, the road lamp in this picture for example, looks like someone put table lamps on top of some pillars, artistically strange, what worries me is what do they do if it rains. the open top of the lamp shade won't help much.

 

[DaTang]

Indian people is far from worry free. They lead a hard life.
India is full of millionaires, they are not standing out anywhere since there are so many of them. But most of your impression, is the pure poverty. They eat from the roadside food stands, as dirty as disordered as you can think of. Several rupees will get you several meatballs, a small portion of rice, two or three fried hot pepper, and that's one of the two meals by many Indian. Poor people love fried everything, very unhealthy and dirty in looking, but they manage to keep healthy. Rental is very expensive, a shabby small apartment will be rented out with 5000 rupees, that is even the case in small towns. Rick saw drivers, some profession earns comparatively more than regular laborers, earns about 6000 rupees monthly, if he rent an apartment, you can imagine how he spend the rest. Poors also favor so called combos, what is combo meal? Several piece of small pancakes, tortilla style, very small, then followed by very small amount of rice, bad quality rice since you can spot pebbles in it, then put some buttery sauce on it, plus a small saucer of whatever spices, they just enjoy it. Cost? 20 rupees.

 

[DaTang]

But they don't wear their struggle on their face. I don't know from where comes their placid attitude. Maybe religion? Religion enables you jump outside the bitterness of this incarnation. No, I don't have a clue. On the contrary, Indian people boasted a lot, they just bluff off their suffering. Maybe bluffing is a way to enjoy the not-so-good life for many Indians.
Indian go to work late, 9:00 am will be considered early. But they wake up early, they are very hardworking, students and office clerks get up with the first beam of sunlight at around 6 or 7. Schools are strict and very tight in schedule. All this contradicts eachother. Internet coffees are place to work, most of the users use it to look for references online and do research, nothing like China's internet coffee, occupied by gamers, speaking of internet game, their computers in netcafe just cannot be used to game, processors too slow and network speed won't meet the minimum requirement.

 

[chase]

But they don't wear their struggle on their face. I don't know from where comes their placid attitude. Maybe religion? Religion enables you jump outside the bitterness of this incarnation. No, I don't have a clue. On the contrary, Indian people boasted a lot, they just bluff off their suffering. Maybe bluffing is a way to enjoy the not-so-good life for many Indians.
Indian go to work late, 9:00 am will be considered early. But they wake up early, they are very hardworking, students and office clerks get up with the first beam of sunlight at around 6 or 7. Schools are strict and very tight in schedule. All this contradicts eachother. Internet coffees are place to work, most of the users use it to look for references online and do research, nothing like China's internet coffee, occupied by gamers, speaking of internet game, their computers in netcafe just cannot be used to game, processors too slow and network speed won't meet the minimum requirement.

Hahaha i am just amazed at his broad and speedy generalizations.....its very funny!!

 

[DaTang]

Any Chinese businessmen will know, their Indian customer or trade partner likes "CHEAP", Cheap is a must, and bargain a plus, if you can give in even several cents, it is important to them. At the same time, they love to show off their richness by bluffing, I ever met one trader from New Delhi, he told me average income of Indian young men is 6K RMB, some 44K rupees monthly, I am just shocked, incredible as it is, I went on confirm since you guys earn so much why do you care about such a small amount of discount, he replied, we Indians are eccentric by nature, we are rich in pocket, stingy in head. we don't buy if it is not a deal. He left me half convinced until I came here.

 

[DaTang]

India did a very good job in preserving their tradition, by tradition, I not only mean Hindu tradition but British tradition as well, people with high profile like to wear luxury watches as rich brits do. Their dress shirt is tailored in a british way. Most clothing are made of cotton, one of their milk-tea is said to be the authentic style of English milk-tea passed on to today. Some rich Indians still observe the tradition of afternoon tea time. Indian puts a lot emphasis on tradition, they observe every traditional holiday. Women are the backbone of keeping their culture identity, you will see a town full of Sarees wherever you go. Culture left over by the British also remains strong, even religion, in a public university's classroom, some of my professors never hesitated to lecture on us about God and Creation.
In a word, their culture is a combination of ancient subcontinent tradition and colonial era influence, very unique indeed. People from different state may not like each other, and difference based on geography is much noticeable than ours. Any indian with advanced education can speak multiple languages, but languages"¦ they have too many languages, note, it is language, not dialects! Kar state is neighbored by Prada, this state witnessed many attempt to partition. Indian states mainly drew their land border with linguistics border, this to a degree, reduced the conflicts, plus the democratic environment, people just shoot out what they want to say, the pressures are released hence. In this case, I will count it as an advantage.


Most important, I will count Hinduism as something vital in India.
Most of states, despite their difference in language and culture, they all have Hinduism as the core of value. Their life is fabricated around Hinduism (Which I am not sure the OP lady is right here)most of indian are Hinduism believer. Diverse as Indians are, the common belief is always there. They are clued together by Hinduism.
Muslim is marginalized, you will find it true since all muslim communities located at the city's most backward district.
Religious conflicts always occurs between Hinduism and any of others,
Hinduism vs. Muslim
Hinduism vs. Catholic
But I see this in a good way, Hinduism plays a central role to unify India. India is bound by Hinduism to prevent it falls apart.