Random Thoughts

All of us in India have built our notion of the west just by seeing the Hollywood TV series and movies, but only after coming to Belgium, I realized that the west also carries a lot of diversity just like the different states of India. I would even go on to say that in many terms Americans are much closer to Indians than Europeans. To give you the big picture, in terms of society, Europe is rather on the conservative side while America is on the exact opposite, and somewhere in between lies UK. You will find a lot many Indians settled in the USA or Canada, even in the UK as compared to Europe. Most of the European countries don't provide any post-study visa to international students which in itself suggests that these countries don't want people from other places to settle here.  Before I move on to explain my personal struggle let me tell you a bit about how different Europeans are from Americans. Europeans prefer bicycles over the motored vehicle and also they tend to buy sma...

No society is perfect, but I believe that Japan is the closest possible thing we have to an ideal society. Before we dwell on what makes it stands out of all the other society of the world, let's take a look into a few of their negatives. Japanese people work too much, there is a term in Japanese called  Karoshi  which translates into death by overwork. On average people work more than 10 hours a day and for some, it even extends to 15-16hrs a day and that too without any extra pay. Coming an hour before the official time and leaving 1-2 hours late after office hours is the norm. They have too many over-generalizations and stereotypes against the foreigners thus making friends for an outsider may be a bit tough, but for Japanese people, it's fine because they do everything together. Unlike the west, Japanese adults tend to stay with their parents and families thus building a deeper sense of community and family. Generally, people don't switch jobs because every employer hir...

I was a very quiet and reserved child back in school, I know most of my college friends won't believe it, but it is true. I was hardly aware of anything going on between people, what was happening in the world, how society operated, I was happy in my simple little world. Back then, I had no knowledge of different fields except for my interest in physics. I just used to study and play, nothing else mattered to me, but then, college happened, everything was changed in a few weeks, there was so much new information to be grasped and I was all set to capture as much as possible. Over the period of time, I started turning into a so-called 'intellectual guy', I know that this word has lost its real connotation in recent times, thanks to the current political climate of our country, but once you have observed and read sufficiently about people and society, there is nothing that can stop you from seeing the world with the lens of intellect. You start questioning everything, you sto...

We all know about the technological advancements of the west, how their cities are far cleaner, far less populated than ours, how well organized their traffic system is. But let's talk about the things which are better or quite different in India, but before we do that, let's take a glance at a few of their good systems as well. If you are not a European person, health insurance is mandatory all the time, you also need to have travel insurance before you make any travel plans. Healthcare is really good in Europe but people do pay their taxes properly and in some countries, it is as high as 60% of their income. You are not supposed to make any noise after 10 PM, because you will be disturbing people's sleep. Your employer can't ask you to sit after your office hours, a student can't work for more than 20 hours a week in a part time job. No one can break the minimum wage rule, it's around 1600 euros/month in Belgium, the class divide is not that huge. There are se...

It was a long flight from New Delhi to Paris, I was thinking that I’ll be feeling really emotional while leaving my home country but nothing of the sort happened, it was not much different from any other travel of mine, the only thing that was different, my worry of losing my documents. International flights are much more spacious than the domestic flights and it looked even more spacious due to fewer passengers in these corona times. As soon as I boarded, I took out my notepad and started filling the pages with what I was experiencing at that moment, to be honest, it was going to be so new that I couldn’t even imagine anything, no thoughts were popping in my mind and quite to my surprise, I was not at all anxious about the upcoming events. Looking out of the window really felt like peeping into heaven, altitude was high and pollution was less. I couldn't get the clear sky shot but here's one of France from the sky. France Paris airport We landed at 6 AM local time at Paris air...

I love talking to different people and I’m always looking to learn something from someone or the other. I consider myself a fairly observant guy, I’m always seeking to understand why people do things thing that they do. Most of the things we do in our daily lives are being done unconsciously, hardly we are conscious of the things we do or even of our own self thus limiting most of our experiences. Now coming to the experiences, a lot of people say to me that they want to experience everything, there is only one life and they want as many experiences as possible. Nothing sounds problematic in this argument, even if you believe in reincarnation, you can desire to get every possible experience in this lifetime. But people just talk the talk, don’t actually walk that talk. Almost everyone who says the above lines is rarely a seeker of experiences, all their talk ends with only three or four things, getting laid down or getting a girlfriend/boyfriend, trying every kind of booze and drugs, t...

Once lived a mighty king named Raj Vardhana in the southern part of India, his subject loved him as he always treated them fairly. King had a lovely wife and 4 beautiful children, he had everything he wanted, an empire, wealth, power, subjects who praised him like a god, and everything else he desired. But all that happiness was not long-lived, his neighbor empire attacked his kingdom and due to the treachery of one his courtier, he lost the entire kingdom. King and his family fled away but unfortunately during the escape, he lost his wife, and later in the forest, he lost his children as well. Everything was lost in a moment, the king was disheartened beyond words, he had nothing left to live for. His condition became such that his own countrymen were unable to recognize him, there was nothing left with him that could be used to tell that he was once a king to a mighty empire. Few days passed and the king was still wandering from one village to another, in hope of that someone might r...