Five Lessons I learn from India
Posted on November 27, 2007
Filed Under Blogger Indonesia, Culture, Education, Fatih Syuhud
So, without much ado I left India several months ago, on March 2007 to be precise. None but a very few friends who knew that I planned to come home that night. It’s my nature that I am not so much into brouhaha thing. Personally speaking I’m a private, a sort of introvert and fond of quietness. Though I engage in some social activities back then in India and more frequently nowadays as a conscience call and as a way of implementing what I’ve been thinking, I feel I enjoy more when I am in a state of solititude. I’ve been in India for quite long time, previously as a “transit” towards another destination–preferably Europe or North America, but finally I feel “at home” in the country for some reasons which is nothing to do with the earlier plan.
There are a lot of tetek bengek things in India that distracts foreigners including me; the complicated and often corrupt bureaucracy (especially the immigration office, the fussy landlords, the extreme heat on summer and extreme cold in the winter are among others. But I didn’t really so care about those stuffs, since it happens quite rare. Besides, talking a flipside of others is basically self-destructive; that’s why I’m more interested to share with you five positive things that we Indonesia can and should learn from the Indians and India.
- Education is cheap. Believe it or not, the fee to get into a prominent state university like Delhi University (DU) is amazingly cheap especially for Indian citizen, in the sense even the son and daughters of tukang becak can be a university student. For foreigners, however, it’s a bit expensive yet still affordable. For Master program in Delhi University, for instance, a foreigner needs to pay only USD 600,00 (roughly IDR 6 mio) until you get the degree. Its counterpart in Indonesia, Universitas Indonesia (UI), the fee is multiple times higher; it’s said around IDR 50 mio (USD 5,000,00). That’s why, many Indian youth got more than one degree to have more job opportunities. Some Indonesian analyst wonder over India’s rapid progress, some even “patriotically” said, “If they can, why can’t we?” They forget or even are not aware of the fact that India progress is not built in a day. Cheap and quality education was thought out and implemented since the very first day of its independent and it starts reaping the harvest this last decade. Indonesia has to make this cheap education–if we cannot make it free– as priorities to accomodate the best sons and daughters of this country who comes from the poorest; from which many outstanding Indian youths came from.
- Though the Indians are generally talkative and “argumentative”, by nature they are peaceful human being. They tend to make heated argument to solve things, but that verbal fight is all they do. I hardly found them end-up in physical violence. It seems they learn from their childhood the art of talking as a way of final solution over their disagreement. We, Indonesians, tend to do inversely–physical “argument” as a final solution in some cases. (to be continued)
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Mas Fatih guleh kerrong ka India, terro abeliyah pole he he he.
@Wazeen: mon nerosaginah kullieh s2, mangken tepak ebukak pendaftaran.
Kan di negeri kita tercinta ini sudah banyak korupsi yang mendarah daging. Jadi apapun itu sesuatu yang bagus berujung kepada akhlak manusia Indonesia sendiri, mau berubah atau nggak.
Di jakarta sekolah banyak gratis tapi tetap oleh sekolah diminta uang apapun itu istilahnya.
salam,
Aries
saya paling ga suka orang india yang banyak ngomong
Though the Indians are generally talkative and “argumentative”, by nature they are peaceful human being.”
A friend of mine is married to Singaporean-Indian and she said she was shock to see her husband arguing heatedly with his parents while she was brought up to not raise a voice towards hers. Her mother-in-law encourages her to stand up and say her mind, to not being Indonesian (you know, nodding but disagree, say yes but dislike the decision). But she also said that the family is very close to each other with great affection between them.
It’s important to have Indonesians learned how to speak up and argue constructively.
I was ever read about the bad habit of India Engineer in Indonesia. They are cheat, ‘lick’, and lazy. Beside that I know that Indian (what we call India guy? Indian is in Latin right?)have good knowledge, especially in IT.