Dal-Bhat, Roti-Sabji and German Soup, Salad and Knudle
I (north Indian from the foothills of Himalayas, living in South India over a decade now) am sharing a house with a Russian Teacher and a German student. We talk about various aspects and that’s what made me write this on the blog. We talked about the similarity of Sanskrit with the Latin (no one speaks Latin now, only Botanical names or scientific names are left in the language, such as aqua for water). Also we talk about times of Perestroika-Glasnost, Berlin wall, Munich , EU and what not. We eat Indian, German, Russian or Scottish food. It has been a dream stay.
Scotland is a country within the British union and they have their own Scottish Parliament. When asked about the views if they would like to be a separate entity, the answer was in negative by saying that they will not benefit with that. In general, people here talk about India in general, Kashmir, about satellites launched, about Slumdog Millionaire, about cast system by giving their own examples of how hey came across some one who went to India to see a number of girls selected by his parents etc.
Slumdog Millionair
There are a few food courts in the university. All the hostel accommodations (mixed-ladies, gents) have kitchens so that they can cook now and then. Although a bit expensive, students do have Hostel accommodation in the west! There is a Chaplaincy in the university. One Tuesday of every month, they provide soup and bread butter for 1 Pound. Many foreigners or even British students and visitors go there. Once I also visited and that was the day when Oscars were announced. A professor asked me, if I am happy that Slumdog got so many awards? I replied ‘it is actually a British film’, and then I asked him, ‘if the Musician got any?’ On affirmation, I told him , ‘Yes I am happy that he has also won the award'. During Feb, or even before the Oscar declaration, one could see the double decked city buses carrying big signboards of this film. Many people have seen it. People were concerned about India!
Foreigners? Where are British people?
My friend is living in Edinburgh since last 10 years. His car (which had a Petrol engine) was hit by a lady driver (before I landed in Scotland). He somehow wanted to change it as it was almost time to change (that’s another story that we filled petrol in the new diesel car). During one of those days, he took a bus on his way home. He told me that he was surprised to see the number of foreigners in the bus. I agree with him as follows. Even when I went to the university here, I had guessed about presence of some foreign students. I was sure that everyone must speak English here (at least, as against Japan and Germany where I was like an odd man out in the number of casual discussions). As mentioned earlier, it is even difficult to follow the Scottish accent, when you are new! Even another Indian who has come here for a ‘training’ from one of the NITs for a week taken aback when the secretary in the ID card section said ‘I have to enter the details in the computer and it will take about half an hour, either you wait here or come after half an hour’, to which he replied ‘what’? I could understand as I was 7 weeks senior than him. (I had initially though that I was again in a non-English speaking country).
The point I want to convey is that you can hear Chinese, German, French, Hindi/Urdu, Arabic, Russian and also English on the corridors, or at the lunch tables, or even lab-classes! This tells that in principle, universities in Britain now are admitting students from abroad just on the basis of fees etc. I found out from one of the new Ph.D. students that she had an Indian friend also while she was studying in another university, but there were more Chinese (90%) in maths than British student! I also visited a company and another university in Glasgow for a lecture. I found that British or Scottish people were in minority when it comes to higher education/ research. I am not sure if this was the general trend in UK, at least my experience showed me this. Till recently, a person with status of dependent-visa was permitted to work in UK, which was not in many other countries.
.............to continue
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