God’s Own Country
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BELONG ANYWHERE
The Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang visited India in AD 637 and wrote about his observation in his book “Si-yu-ki” (Record of the Western Countries). According to him the caste system was rigid but women would get an education and there was no purdah system, the common people were simple and honest. Though it had many religions, there was complete tolerance among people of all religious faiths.
Such cultural accounts are very important in today’s globalized world.
As Chief travelling Officers of our own life, we must take account and respect other cultures, especially when in other countries. Being in IT Industry, I have been privileged to travel across the world and meet people from different cultures and spheres of life. In this series, I am sharing a few stories based on my experiences while working with people across the world.
What is your story?
click here to read all stories of BELONG ANYWHERE https://www.storyberrys.com/category/series/belong-anywhere/
Story 1: God’s Own Country
“Why does everything in India have to do with Gods?”.
I was not ready for this question. I took a deep look at Wayne and then at the poster again. I felt a bit irritated by the question and wondered why Wayne was generalising the statement. I felt a touch of sarcasm. I thought he was insensitive.
We were standing in the large corridor of our customer’s software development centre in Atlanta Georgia, USA. Wayne was my new manager and it happened to be my first one-to-one meeting with him and that too in this corridor when both of us were heading to and fro, from the pantry. With our coffee mugs in our hand, we coincidently stopped near a poster about Kerala Tourism, which hung in the corridor, with the tag line “God’s own country” written prominently at the bottom.
The discussion started with casual ‘Hi and hello’ and with a small talk about my background and that’s when he referred to this poster and asked this question. He asked me the reason behind the tagline and when I tried to explain about Kerala’s serene beauty, backwater and coconut tree-lined houses, etc., I thought I was a proud ambassador of Kerala (and India) and marketing its beautiful tourist destination. I had no thought in my dream that the question will become so literary, with the word “God” becoming so prominent in this “small talk”.
“Sorry, I did not mean to hurt you, if you are!”. These words brought my attention back to his question. Or probably he read my mind.
He continued, “Are people in India, generally more spiritual? and God-fearing? I have never been to India but always wanted to visit one day and see a few places of interest such as those in the Himalayas and the famous temple. And of course, visit the famous Taj Mahal.”
Oh, I realised the intention behind his question. It was not a sarcastic one, as I had first thought of it. He was genuinely curious. Then I explained the diversity of India, not only in terms of history, geography, people, and belief system but also culture. And then how religion is part of living, but how people are so flexible, welcoming, and accommodative, highlighting how the guest is also considered God in India :-).
He was bemused to hear that, he said, he has never heard such importance given to guests anywhere in the world, and thought that people may be themselves Godly to think like that.
He again had a deep look at the photo and firmed up his resolve to visit India sooner, he said he will also visit “God’s own country” during his India visit. 🙂
We broke into laughter and said bye to each other going in our direction.
It was a good lesson for me. Intercultural communication is not easy, even if it is casual small talk. For every few words which are spoken, hundreds of other words go back and forth in mind extending that conversation. These unspoken words, and reactions, emote different types of feelings and can lead to forming or storming the relationship. Hence, intercultural communication is also a kind of contextual mastery.
Dinesh Kumar Singh