Money makes the world go round.
It’s no surprise that there is huge financial disparity in India that is way more visible than in America. The other day we went to the New Market area of Calcutta to shop for cheap scarves, jewelry and clothes. This area is densely populated with beggars and very visible slums and poverty, but right smack dab in the midst of that is the Oberoi Grand, a swanky five star hotel.
If you literally take one step outside the guarded gates of the hotel you are in the middle of poverty. The contrast is shocking and Ananda (the professor leading the trip) wanted us to experience this by shopping in the market and then going into the hotel to have a drink at the bar. It was pretty unbelievable that there was this type of luxury and grandeur right in the epicenter of it’s opposite.
Visiting with the students of Delhi Public School
We continued our exploration into the the lives of the different classes when we went to visit a nice Indian private school, which is paradoxically called Delhi Public School and it is neither public or in Delhi… long story. Anyway, we went to this school to meet with the high school students and talk to them about what college is like in America and recruit them to come to Wake Forest.
At first, I thought it was going to be really awkward to talk to them and that we wouldn’t have anything in common, but they turned out to be so similar to us that they could have just as well been teenagers in America. We listened to all the same music, watched all the same movies, and made references to all the same pop culture. These kids are well off middle class and upper middle class Indians which helps to explain how they are so attuned to the American lifestyle, and they would never have had this opportunity if it weren’t for their parent’s financial status.
The day went on just like a day could have been in America. We visited an outsourcing company, called Cognizant, in the IT hub of Calcutta and learned about not only about outsourcing, but about why so many Indians are doctors and engineers which I will get to later. That night we went out to a nightclub and danced to the same songs that are on the top twenty in America right now.
What I’ve discovered is that making money is really important in both India and America. People want to achieve and make themselves better by going to college and getting a job and going on to lead a comfortable life, but in India I think it is more out of a sense of fear and duty than free will. In America, I think we strive to be successful for our own personal gain, but in India kids want to be successful because they want to be able to support their family and keep their kids from becoming the beggars on the street, so they choose to sacrifice their dream of becoming a photographer and decide to go to medical school because it’s what society expects them to do. The pressure to be successful in this country is immense, and I’m interested in exploring the other end of the spectrum of wealth as we move throughout the country. More to come!