Uncle Sam leaves you baffled sometimes. The country that to many is the epitome of the "place they want to be in", of course is benign to visitors and soaks them in like a sponge. And this is where one encounters the biggest contradictions of all times. American people are quintessentially different from us, Indians. Americans are different from us in their approach to people, in the way they perceive family and friends...and strangers! Go to any shop and u will find complete strangers, people you would never even bump into, not even accidently, giving you smiles and acknowledging you like they've known since eternity! And that is something I commend them with. They really are friendly. Well, most of them! We, in India don't do that. Smiling at strangers, particularly men to women, is offensive for us. We like to mind our own business when we don't know who we're around! And here lies the greatest irony of the two cultures. We are apathetic to people we don't know, but we love our kith and kin- without any strings attached. Parents walking into our rooms without knocking is 'not an invasion of our privacy', like it is, here, in America. We walk into a friends place when we so like- and we don't need an appoinment for it. We arrive an hour early for dinner and we don't hear "its rude to be early"!
Americans might lead a more priviledged life, economically, than most of us do, but we are happier, much much more than them, because togetherness is what makes us happy-happy and content. It is'nt a question of "we" or "them" really, its just how different two societies can be, and how different the roads they take in life.
