"Awesome!"

I met people from all over the world, a lot of my perceptions were shattered and apart from cultural differences, people all over the world are the same! I get along famously with Germans (for some strange reason, I always tend to forge strong friendships with German people and this time too, I found a German lady I got along very well with), Italians, Englishmen (or women or British), Norwegians, Koreans, the French (surprise! surprise! I was told that the french were an unfriendly lot, but I seemed to meet sunny, friendly french people who attempted to valiantly converse with me despite me not understanding french and they not understanding English!), Israelis, the Polish, and most Europeans. I however just did not meet one American who I liked even remotely (Maybe because most of them were lawyers had something to do with it?). I met some very interesting American people at a professional level, but on a personal level, I couldn't bond with any. I guess I suck at superficial conversation.

I was asked by ALL Americans how the BPO business has changed the face of India and whether it was true that Indian BPOs were only glorified sweat shops. I tried telling them that what actually changed a whole lot of Indian urban society was not answering calls from the US but the upsurge of the IT industry and that most BPOs were indeed glorified sweat shops and I was related one outrageous story after the other. One American lady told me she had a lot of fun in catching them Indians out while telebanking. Whatever happened to snakes, tigers, godmen, kali and the holy cow? It used to be those a few years back. I am continually amazed at how Americans expect people to understand their accents (doesnt matter what accent it could be, texan, southern or a gruff minnesotan one) but find Indian accents hard to follow. I normally am slow at identifying accents, but don't have a problem understanding any (except maybe a yorkshire one, that one is very tough for me) accent. I also have an Indian accent, but I don't think its very hard to follow. I just hope them Americans would quit whining at the loss of jobs (to India!) as if the only jobs that exist in America are the low-end customer support ones and learn to be more tolerant of the world around them. Blaming Indians seems to be the flavour of the season and I noticed today a lot of the American bloggers have done that too. Not a problem, losing jobs hurt, but er... on using some grey cells it should follow that the moment a cheaper location is discovered, the BPO business would shift out of India. I have meandered, from my original topic though and I don't even remember the point I wanted to make. Anyway, it was wonderful meeting and interacting with people, and intelligent, smart and informed people too.