Yeah, Hindistan thats what Turks call India. I am in Turkey for last one month and was waiting for my experiences to grow more to blog it down and now here I am. I saw people having all absurd news about India and amazingly those news were common to all, every Turk knew the same about India, they say their ancestors teach them this. Woooooohhh.. Now let me tell you some of them.
*If a Turk saw any poor guy in Turkey, he symbolizes him as "Indian Begger".
*They wonder how many gods are there in Hindu religion and WHY??
*They ask what is the population of Muslims in India and how is our relation with Indian Muslims.
*Most of the people saw Slum Dog Millionaire and have supposed whole of India to be like that- A Slum.
*Indian insects are very popular for the "Fact" that they are one of the most poisonous of all found on earth and if an insect bites them no power on earth can save them.
*The 1st thing they notice about Indian women is- "Hey whats that thing at the center of their head"... supposedly Bindi.
*To some I asked why all you people think India is full of poor people and I got a common answer-"Slum Dog and DISCOVERY channel speaks all about the living of Indians"
*Just once I heard from a boat man "I have seen on TV and read that Indian Industries are growing very fast and they will be one among the most developed nations in years to come"...I really felt chilled. :D
*The BIGGEST Topic- COW! COW! COW!
Ya friends Turks ask- "Why do you worship cow?", "We daily eat cow, does eating cow a sin for you?", "What if you are driving and you hit a cow and its dead- What punishment will you get?", "We have heard that if a cow is sitting on road you people stop your car and wait for hours and hours for that cow to move herself ("itself" in Turkish tongue) and it becomes a huge traffic jam", blah blah blah....
This is all about the "Turkish Hindistan".
I just ask myself-"MY GOD!! HOW COME SO MANY WRONG BELIEFS AND AMAZINGLY COMMON TO ALL TURKS???"
Well for this I won't blame the "Sweet Turkish people"- It is just that they only know a part of "The Vast India", they have just read whatever is written over their history books about Cows, they have just seen a handful of people telecasted on TV and unfortunately all poor, they have a common culture and religion all over the country and that drives them away from the complexities of a country with a diverse religion and culture spread out.
On the other hand when I answer to their Questions and explain them the real face of India, they whole heartedly accept it. They accept that whatever they knew was just "a part of turth". That is why I said "Sweet Turkish people".
There is yet another thing to notice, people love to talk to Hindistanis, they give love, respect, help and whatever you need or may be even more than that.
THE COMPARISON::
Now I would like to compare the two countries, the backdrops I noticed in Hindistan after coming to this place-
*The Biggest and foremost problem- Population. We have a population of 1.2 billions and Turkey is just having a population of 75 million sweet turkish people. It is obvious that its difficult to keep 1.2 billion people rich than to keep 75 million people rich.
*Trade: Turkey has an influence of rich European countries and we are surrounded by many small developing countries.
*Indian government is always fighting for yet another state, no one bothers to represent its country as a whole. No wonder very soon every state of Hindistan would be fighting to become a separate country. "Chak de India" reminds me of that. We all, while in India, represent ourselves by our states we belong to, we never say "We are Indians". But exactly the opposite I found in Turkey.
*We can see Turkish Flag outside a shop, inside bus, outside houses, inside every government or private office, at electric poles, over mountains, on vehicles,in every institute, etc etc.
But Indian Flags, if a shopkeeper puts it outside his shop,if a person put it on his car or hang it from an electric pole on road(except for Republic and Independence Day), he will be jailed for "Disrespecting" Indian flag, in none of the offices I have gone I have ever found an Indian flag over the tables.
We can feel the nationialism at every footstep in Turkey. And that feeling matters.
*The Heroes- Turkish give homage to their heroes, they have statues of Ataturk everywhere, I mean if you don't know who is he (like me) you will be forced to ask and know about him finding him everywhere you go. But what about Gandhi Ji and Bhagat Singh?? We people even don't remember them on their Birth and Death anniversaries.
*Mentality- We Indians are bound to do things which make our country look even more dirty, we have taken oath not to put garbage in Bin, we have taken oath to do "Muutr visarjan" (Pee)on roadsides, we have taken taken oath to throw the wrappers of out food stuffs there and then as we finish, no matter what the place is.
In Turkey people respect their government, they want their country to look beautiful. I have possessively observed people walking some 10 meters and throwing the garbage in Bin only. Here you wont find a heap of bad smelling plastics whose facility you can avail anywhere you want in India.
*Technology- We help many countries to develop new technologies, we are intellectually one of the most sound countries but we just develop,we don't use our technologies and soon it just becomes a history. This may be one of the reasons why we are a cheap labour for U.S.
In turkey I found the use of technology (for a very small eg- all the buses,even the local ones, have hydraulic doors), they don't develop it all on their own but use it to fullest and increase their living standards.
*Work Culture- We are lazy, except for some well renowned institutes nowhere you will find any fruitful research work going on. We have no enthusiasm to develop our country. On the other hand, here even small institutes carry many research works, they have a zeal to contribute to their Institute and their nation.
*Simplicity- We consider a simple person as a very soothing human being, we relate simplicity with living style, but here the definitions are changed- Simple means Simple by your thoughts- If a person is simple, he/she is not living his/her life. Thats their perspective of live and I loved it.
We have those two things a developed nation needs- Intellectual Power and Wealth. We just need one thing- Change our mentality. And India will soon be a developed country!!
Thanks to Orcun,Sercan,Anil,Halil,Ozge,Remziye,Murat,Sadik,Appo,Boat wala and every other person who involved in conversation with me and helped me to think, think beyond the rocks!!
