Life lessons from the story
When different cultures come in contact, there is bound to be some kind of conflict between them. This conflict arises mainly from the different perceptions and stereotyping of a particular cultural group by another. The narrator in this personal story is the well-known Indian personality Sudha Murty, chairperson of the Infosys Foundation. She gives two contrasting accounts of her visits to the US, one in 1979 and another in 2009. Her first visit to the US was bitter and unpleasant not only because of her long, roundabout flight, but also because of the strict stamp procedures and the tough and culturally insensitive questions she was asked by the immigration officer.
Ignorance of the culture of another country leads the officer to ask absurd questions about India. The image of India as being a land of snake charmers, maharajas and elephants was created during the colonial period and this continued perception of India in 1979 was naturally a shock for Sudha Murty who was trained as an engineer and worked as the first woman engineer with the Tata Company in Pune.
This critical situation of a failure to communicate due to cultural differences can be bridged by an active interest in another culture as exemplified by the African American in Sudha Murty's second account of her experience at Miami airport.
Unlike the two immigration officers in the first account, the African American visits Indian restaurants, eats good food there, enjoys watching Hindi movies, hums Hindi songs, and even appreciates Kajol as talented artist. Unlike the documentary referred to by the second officer in the first account, good movies can certainly throw light on another culture, especially if the culture is quite different from one's own.
Similar cultural gaps exist between people from different language groups in our own country, but information and communication technologies such as television, the Internet, Whatsapp, etc., have recently helped people understand each other better.
As Sudha Murty points out, it is the responsibility of each culture to communicate itself to others in terms of political, social, economic and technological advancements to facilitate a better perception of that culture.
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