Things I miss about not being in US

Now that I have already blogged about, "Small things i thought I would miss about USA but am not" it is time to write about things that i do miss about USA.....once again I will start with small or rather peripheral things before delving into personal things...

1. Customer service : Just before coming to India, we needed to do some mortgage related work in the bank. The teller gave us a particular time and was waiting to open the door for us at that exact minute. He promised to get our application approved in a specific amount of time and it was done in that time frame. He even called us home to notify us of the status.

Even now I needed to call King county records department and was able to speak to a live person within minutes. She was not only helpful but followed it up with an email so I could communicate more easily. Try that in any indian government office!

All fifteen of the things that we needed to take care of as part of putting our house in Redmond on rent happened at scheduled time; cleaners came on time, painters came on time and did the work in specified time and within budget, landscaper came on time, garage door repairman came on time etc. etc. etc.

People value your (and their time!)

I contrast that with my experiences in India, Tata Indicom person took our order and check. Then lost both the form and the check. Then didn't tell us about it for a month. Then wanted a second check before they could process our order...I made a feeble attempt to remind him about "customer service" but it was so blatantly obvious that he did not get it. It is not his fault. The culture itself is like that. Not that I didn't anticipate it and was able to manage it in the end but still it is one thing I would like to change.

2. Simplicity/non-showyness of people : While in Redmond, I would go to the gym where I would frequently (in fact every wednesday morning at 6:30am) see Steve Balmer. I don't even want to know how many zeros apart we are from each other in terms of net worth. But the very fact that I had access to the same club as him felt very good. Even in other places, I met numerous people who owned large businesses but drove non-flashy cars and behaved as normal human beings.

Here in India, I was on my way to Pune airport and suddenly all of the traffic was stopped because a caravan of some important person was passing by.......Membership to various clubs, poona club in particular; is regarded as a status symbol and people go there just to show that they are one level above everyone else. Everyone gives you advice on what car to buy that would suite my "status"....Why, why and why?

.... more coming later....