English Days

Our ‘English days’ started on the 7th April 2007 when we set out to enjoy the company of our eldest son and his family staying in London. We have our origins in a rural background in the north coast of Andhra Pradesh in India. Our lives started in a freshly post independent India trying to develop its resources to provide self sufficiency to its people and climb up the ladder of modern development to catch up with the rest of the world. India, with its colonial relation with England, had inherited a bundle of advantages and disadvantages from it. We can count the English language, without doubt as an advantage as it is a key to a large portion of the scientific and technical knowledge that is accumulated in various parts of the world. This is not to say that knowledge is privy to english. With Sanskrit as the mother of all Indian languages, we are heirs to a large knowledge base which is ancient and probably older than that available in English. The ancient knowledge scripted in Sanskrit, covers scientific and technical fields and forms a unique cultural base.

Though we are broadly aware of the culture of the English, the trip to England offered us an opportunity to observe their ways of living from close quarters. For us the study started even while we were airborne from Dubai. As we were travelling by Emirates Airlines, we changed aircraft at Dubai. A passenger sitting by our side was a British foot-ball coach who was returning back after watching a match at Dubai. For the entire journey he was glued either to his magazines or his cell phone. He did not even so much as look at us or engage in any conversation. The information regarding him was given by him on my soliciting only. I notice that these people normally do not disturb nor want to be disturbed and would very much value their privacy. A good quality indeed, in contrast to us, with many of us indulging in unnecessary gossip , probably with the only good intention of improving our general knowledge.

The second experience is at the immigration check counter. We were asked to wait for our turn about at least six to ten feet away from the counter while a transaction was in progress. Later on, we were to learn that people keep some distance between themselves while waiting for their turn to transact at a counter. This is to avoid physical contact between persons waiting in the queue. We do not see anybody trying to break the queue on a plea that they have to go else where urgently. We also see that extra counters are immediately activated if there is more crowd in the queue. This society uses discipline as a tool for equitable distribution of benefits to its members.