My experiences

It was start of August 2008 when I traveled for a project in London. This assignment came after a lot of uncertainty. I was interviewed by many clients and was waiting for a response. As a powerless employee of a powerful organization, I had no right to ask any questions. (Everything, you know, depends on business requirements!)

Anyways, I landed in London and looked forward towards a wonderful experience. This was the first time I ever moved out of India and I thought it would be an exciting time. My first impression about London was quite good. Although the city was quite expensive, everything seemed to be properly planned and managed in the city. Traffic Rules were quite stringent and 24 hours CCTV cameras were put all over the city for surveillance. It was difficult to spot any beggar.

London inhabitants are very courteous and understanding. Government regulations are enforced quite strictly and unlike in India, Police commands respect in public. Public facilities like healthcare are available to every one and if insured, you pay almost nothing for medical treatment. Almost all kids go in public schools managed by government free of cost. London is connected through underground Metro covering almost every part of London. This is the best mode of transport in London (although not the cheapest one).

What you miss in London is friendly culture that you enjoy at any roadside tea shop in India. People (though respectful) are quite discreet and formal.

But above all, my experience in London helped me in understanding that things that look rosy from far may be quite disdainful when you come close to them. London was not that exciting as I had thought, it proved not so good place for me. Personally, I faced cultural shock and professionally, I found annoying and disturbing characters.

The environment in London office was not so good. I found too much of politics, beurocracy and lack of transparency in office. I found myself stuffed with workload and often I had to stay 12 hours in office.

Second, services in London were quite unaffordable. I had to slog everyday from morning till night. I had to make breakfast, wash my clothes and clean my room. In short, I had to leave my royal lifestyle in India and live a penurious life in London.

I realized that a software engineer working in India can have lavish life style compared to his counter part in US or UK. Services are quite cheap in India compared to developed countries. The most prominent reason for cheap services in India is the excess of labor available due to 1.2 billion strong population.

Another bad experience, I had to change my home many times in London. During my stay of 5 months in London, I changed my home 3 times. It was either because I didn’t find a decent roommate or a good house owner or a right place to stay.

I met a guy in London in his late 50’s, from India. He was quite disappointed with the prevalent culture in London. According to him kids in London don’t respect their parents; girls live with guys prior to marriage and family is not given enough importance. He said that this culture is not good and our country is much better place. We respect and obey our parents and quite strong culturally.

I thought that the guy was missing many positive aspects. Whereas in India, we struggle for availing any public service, in developed world public services are efficient and predictable. The trust in the government and society in these countries is so strong that people are quite confident and sure that as long as they are right nothing wrong will happen to them. That’s the driving force behind optimism prevalent in their system.

This is strikingly different from India where you know that if something is stolen from your house, you may get it back only if you pay bribe to the cops. You know, that if you want to get justice, you need to know powerful person (MLA, MP, IAS etc). You know that if you are poor and get sick, you will not find any public health care facility.

The scarcity of labor in developed countries ensures that the labor is paid well despite lower skill sets. Due to this, financial disparity is minimal in developed countries and every one is respected for what they do unlike in India where labor lacks respect and lives below the poverty line.

Is the financial disparity and disrespect only because of excess labor? No… The difference in the quality of life of a common man in a developed country vis a vis India is the proactive and responsible government’s managing the developed countries. Corruption level in these countries is way below in India and the Taxpayers money does come back for the upliftment of the society.

Lastly, my stay in London helped me in understanding business of IT services Industry and the outsourcing model prevalent in Indian software services space. I think it would have taken me much more time in practically understanding the nuances of Indian IT Industry while working from offshore.