Tuesday, November 29, 2011

China vs India

So here is goes. I was in Mainland China over the past week. A lot has been written about the Chinese growth engine etc, which is totally true, infrastructure development is just immense and magical in the middle kingdom. High speed trains, easy access to flights, so many roads etc.

The one thing which I felt was missing was warmth. Chinese people, at least the ones I have met in the US/Hong Kong etc are very warm people, at least amongst their own. In Mainland, it just seemed that all the folks are so introverted that they are missing out on life. Life for a average Chinese is very tough, salaries for a University graduate is low around 700 USD per month, to 2k USD a month where as the big boss who runs the company/factory makes around 1 million USD (over 200k Audi approximately sells in China and 18.5 million cars got sold in 2010).

When ones comes to India, people are more warm, foreigners are more welcome and the average person on the street is helpful (barring a few scoundrels).

I think China over its growth has lost its soul and has become one big concrete jungle, where more and more people look sad and uninterested. I really hope this changes and China becomes more ecologically attuned, reduces it numbers of cars and the over-all happiness index improves. This I believe India is happy (even in the poverty of the slums, you can see smiling children)!!

At the end of the day, everyone wants to be happy!!

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