It’s been one year now…one year for my visit to the topsy-turvy world…You might be wondering which new place is this. It’s none other than the land of Columbus….Some how the word topsy-turvy always strikes me when I think about this country.
The day I landed in Chicago I was completely bedazzled. I was amazed by the vastness of this city. Tall towers kissing the sky, the monster skyline, it was just too much to take in a day.
Mega structures, smooth roads, robust transportation system, technology are some of the common things that any one of us would have noticed but if you watch a bit carefully, you will realize that this world spins completely the other way round
Things here work exactly the opposite way than that back home. The most common example is the Left Hand Drive. The obvious one which all of us know. People keep to their right while walking and we keep to our left. This was a really scary one. I always used to find myself in an awkward position when the other person coming down the gangway used to just stick to his right along the cabins and just wait there in front of me till I went to the other side. Needless to say I actually walked into many people in my office. Including the ladies
. Huh!!!! ……………
Some of the other things that I observed were the switches. The ‘ON’ and ‘OFF’ is the other way round, the gas knobs turn clockwise where as we have it turning anticlockwise. Sorry to use the word gas. What I mean here is cooking gas or rather the electric cooking range. Gas in US means petrol. The taps open in the clockwise direction and close in anticlockwise. From door knobs to any other rotating device all turn the other way. I wonder how these guys missed out on the wheels. No, hold it. I remember many jazzy cars rolling out on weekends having these wired wheel covers rotating just opposite to that of the wheels. These guys are crazy……
To add on further, we have keys going into the locks with the teeth pointed down where as they have the keys going into the locks with the teeth pointed up. The letters have the ‘From’ and the ‘To’ addresses written the opposite way. While posting, the officer at the post office insists you to write the ‘From’ address first and then the ‘To’ part of it can be placed anywhere. The ‘Form’ address has to be put in the middle or the top right. They will just return the letter back if the ‘From’ address is not properly visible.
Also the writing style and the style of holding the pencil are quite different to that of ours. We hold the pencil with the lead pointing away from us towards the paper. They hold it with the lead pointing towards them. The writing style is also very unusual. Most of the Americans are accustomed to write letters without lifting the pencil much. I am not referring here to cursive writing. When we write any letter we move the pencil downwards but they move it upwards. For example the natural style for us to write the letter ‘C’ will be to start from top and then move downwards. They start from bottom and move upwards.
These are a few things that I observed. The other things like the most famous American Slang, the terminologies they use (gas, step on the gas, mike), etc, etc follow suite. I am sure we might find more things to add to this list. These guys seem to have developed their own techniques for doing each and everything and they are proud to boast about it as well. They are different in their own way and know how to bend others to accept their ways …..
Please do not wonder if tomorrow Dubyaman shouts out to the world that
“The Earth has just started to spin the other way…”
Believe me….they have the power and guts to do that. Some important lessons for INDIA to learn…………
Post edited by: nikhilde, at: 2006/10/03 05:36<br><br>Post edited by: nikhilde, at: 2006/10/03 13:52
