Dissimilarities in similarities

France and India… You will think that I have gone nuts to even have thought of comparing the two countries. One a socialist democratic and other being capitalist democratic, one already developed and the other still struggling to be counted in ‘Developing countries’, one totally machine dependent where experiments are done to reduce human intervention to the minimum and other trying to increase the human involvement to give employment to the over populated population and you can put it humorously one having most human touch with least human intervention and other having least human touch with most human intervention.


But finally humans are humans and some of the human traits just don’t follow the boundaries. In a month long stay I saw few things and thought they are so different although being so similar and thought of jotting them down.

1. Morning rush : Morning metros and trams can easily make you forget that if you are in Mumbai or Lyon. Train coming at every 5 minutes, group of people surging every second and filling the platform by the time next train arrives, no place to sit and sometimes stand even in train. I see people running for trains here also, entering the train even when the buzzer is buzzing to tell them to wait for next train as they are just missing this one. But even in those huge rush you will hear words like ‘Pardon’ , ‘Desolee’ , ‘ Excuse moi’. These words immediately bring my mind back to Lyon incase it wanders to Mumbai. I never get to hear the hindi/english counterparts of these French courtesy words in Indian trains. Its actually true when you have a population of more then a billion then you cannot expect people not to strike each other and to say sorry each time they hit another human body.

2. Kids : Its always soothing to see a kid running, playing, falling, retrying the same thing and refalling the similar way it fall in the last try. Kids are those who have not yet been able to recognize the difference between skin color, who still don’t understand that why it is wrong to jump off the bed, who gets hurt but doesn’t think twice before repeating the same thing. Kids’ innocence never follows boundaries, skin color, religion, region anything. I always find it interesting to see all these characteristics of a kid as it make me realize that there is still some innocence left in this cruel world but this satisfaction of mine is very short lived as next very moment I see somebody murdering this innocence, when I see a kid begging on the road, kid cleaning the table and getting thrashed for not cleaning it properly The innocence in their eyes die that very moment when for a penny they clean somebody’s car windowpane and see through the same window pane a mother pampering her kid with a chocolate. It is not only poverty that is culprit, even a kid of a normal family sometimes faces problem, although different from above, the problem of alone childhood as his parents are busy earning bread for him. Till now(cant guarantee future though) I haven’t seen any of this problem here. Govt provides a extra day off from work if you have kid. Sundays are always the family day with all the shops closed, providing the family to bond together. I wish something similar to happen but even my wish knows that if not century then it is decades away from becoming a reality.

3. Beggars : This is the one of the most interesting (dis)similarity I have come across in France. Its totally untrue to say that there are no beggars here and like those in India, they ask for money but unlike those in India they ask for cigarette if not money. Like those in India they ask for something to eat but unlike those in India they speak English (mind you English is so uncommon here that if I hear somebody speaking English then my head turns). Like those in India they sometimes beg with there kids but unlike those in India they are properly dressed. Like those in India they play music but unlike those in India they say ‘Merci & Bonsoir’ when you don’t give anything.

4. Pets : Ah pets, or I should precisely say dogs, are my weak point. I just hope one day even I will have a dog whom I will name Bruno. I think love for a dog is not different, neither in India nor in France and I find quiet a number of people (I wont talk in terms of percentage coz then India will fall far behind) having a dog as a pet but the dogs in both the places are so different. In my first visit I kept on wondering that why a pet owner doesn’t put dog strap around the neck, and in the absence of the strap how come the dog behaves perfectly, following the owner (I hate to use this word as human or a dog, both are just two beings. Today the belt is our hand, you never when it becomes vice versa). Dogs are so well behaved, sometimes I feel they are better behaved then me even. Back in India I can never find this behavior, they might not bite but they will surely bark on the stranger, a guest or any unknown person in that matter. I still wonder is it the food, climate or the upbringing that makes our dogs so different then here’s. If possible I will do the experiment of bring a puppy from India and raising it here, at least that will strike off one of the reasons specified above.

I know with time I will come across more points and will keep on adding to my list till the point my eyes and mind become used to of this place and cease to see or note the dissimilarities in these similar situations.