Nature of Indians

In his article A Dust Over India, Mark Manson makes an observation about Indians.  He paints every Indian with a broad brush and this kind of observation is often wrong.

I have met many Indians who lie.  The most interesting are those (uneducated or highly educated, rich, middle class or poor) who lie point blank and believe it is okay to do that, even when they know it will harm someone, these are the desi psychopaths.  I guess that not lying is rare when it comes to Indian business arena and its slightly to significantly less prevalent in the personal lives of Indians.  Slum Dog Syndrome may be a factor in this habit.  If the nation of Pakistan may be arguably identified as a nation of terrorists/potential terrorists/terrorism sympathizers, what will the nation of India be identified as?

An American friend recently visited India.  I wished him a happy visit but in my heart I feared that he would see all kinds of shit on the streets of India and return with a poor opinion about India.   

Indians/Hindus can be quite petty (particularly some women) in their personal lives and interactions with other Indians.  In interactions with Americans, this pettiness is covert and is not recognizable at first.  I have met some Indians who speak the truth and are upstanding human beings and it is indeed a pleasure to meet these rarities.  I reckon that Gandhi may have been a rarity among these rarities.  I have met a few Americans who lie.  I have met many Americans who more or less speak the truth.  

Here's the excerpt from Mark Manson's article:

The local I got to know the best was Sanjay, the 20-something year old who ran a hostel I stayed in. He had studied in London and been all over Europe so he was fairly westernized. He and I would stay up late together drinking cheap vodka regaling each other with our travel stories. There was little else to do after nightfall in India but get drunk. And little felt more appropriate.

But what Sanjay told me about Indian people is bizarre but true. He said Indians will rarely, if ever, resort to violence. As a foreigner, you never have to worry about being robbed, or having a knife pulled on you, or getting beaten up by a gang of thugs and having your kidney carved out of you. And this is true. I’ve been to many shady parts of the world. But never did I once feel unsafe in India. Even late at night.

BUT, Sanjay said, an Indian will lie to your face. He’ll say anything to get what he wants from you. And most of them don’t see it as immoral or wrong. So on the one hand, they won’t stick a gun in your face to take your wallet. But they’ll hand you fake business cards and offer to sell you something that they don’t actually have, so that you’ll voluntarily empty your wallet to them on your own accord.

And I have to give them credit, they’re really convincing salespeople.

India Is Disgusting-Mark Manson

Indians don't immigrate out of India.  We get the fook out of India.  Those who get out are indeed lucky.  What do you see when you go back to visit your family in India?  When one gets out of any airport, you are in the midst of a human wildebeest herd.  Fooking people everywhere.  Poorly planned and unlawful construction everywhere.  Potholed roads everywhere, if you can call them that.  People moving around like a thick row of ants in their cars and scooters; its like wildebeest herds crossing River Mara at every traffic signal.   You breathe exhaust fumes mixed with fine dust most of the time.  As you head to your destination, you are periodically hit with the smell of piss and shit from roadside open toilets.  Men take out their pricks and let it go on the roadside.  Cows and stray wild dogs and their shite everywhere.  Obsolete temples preying on dumb Indians and brainwashing mosques everywhere.   Stupid commercial and Bollywood billboards everywhere promoting all kinds of aholes and shite in the name of entertainment.  Electric poles and  wires everywhere.  And to top it off, the country has the shitty reservation system in educational institutions and employment that won't end for political reasons.  You unconsciously know that getting out of that environment was the best decision you ever made for yourself and your progeny. 

If you give the environment a thoughtful moment, you realize that human dignity is inversely proportional to the number of human beings.    If you give it further thought, you realize  that there is no fooking government that can solve the problems of this populous country.  The government, its three branches and its self serving members have mostly given up and said, "Oh Fook it" and left the people to fend for themselves.  And I suppose the people do a pretty good job for fending for themselves in that wretched environment.  Those who can, get the fook out of it, at the earliest, by any means, thanks to the global economy fook up.  Does it make sense to sing Vande Mataram or Jana Gana Mana in USA?  Fook, no.

Now here is what a visitor thinks.   

Mark Manson has written an article A Dust Over India.  Here is an excerpt from Mark Manson's article,

The first thing that strikes you about India is how dirty it is. In a word, the place is disgusting. All of it. The entire country. Never before have I seen mountains of garbage the size of a small house stacked on the side of a road, in broad daylight, in the middle of a city, repeatedly. Dumpsters tipped over and overflowing. Mounds of trash — wrappers, cups, papers, napkins, strewn all about, mixed with sludge from the soda and urine and spit coagulated from thousands of daily passersby.

Like the dust, the garbage never ceases. And along with the garbage, there is an unending stream of humanity. It is impossible to spend a full day in the middle of a major Indian city without lobotomizing yourself trying to figure out where the hell all of the people come from. I’ve been to Hong Kong. I’ve been to Manhattan and Beijing. I’ve been to Mexico City. And the swarm of humanity crawling through India’s cities is unparalleled. There’s no comparison. Many streets more closely resemble a bee hive than a functioning human society. When I flew into Mumbai, there were homeless people sleeping on the tarmac. Take a moment for that to sink in: the city is so crowded and disgusting that people decide they’d rather sleep on the airport runway.

And that is the second thing to strike you about India. The poverty. It is legitimate take-your-breath-away poverty. Like the kind you see on TV charity ads but far worse. And far more real. Limbless men stewing about in their own feces. Emaciated children playing on a piles of garbage. A man with his leg literally rotting off to the bone, maggots and all, laying on the curb. It’s everywhere. The amount of suffering is indescribable. And it is unceasing. After a couple days, I was excited to hire a driver to go to Agra because I figured I’d be able to see some countryside and escape the stench and horrors of the city. But no. The entire four hours between Delhi and Agra was an unending stream of people, garbage and cars, with billows of dust drafting in our wake the whole way down.

My initial reaction the first few days was pure shock. But it quickly evolved into anger. How could a place like this be allowed to exist? How could normal people walk around with a clear conscience with so much shit and squalor festering about them? I felt indignant. Where was the social accountability? Where was the charity? Where the fuck was the government?