India

No Brasil, não pensamos muito sobre a India. Sabemos que existe 1,1 bilhão de indianos, mas eu nunca tinha sido apresentado a um deles. Isso muda quando se mora em Londres. A cultura da India está por todos os lados, meus amigos são descendentes de indianos e eu já comi toneladas de curries. É natural ficar interessado pelo país, apesar de ser realmente difícil entendê-lo (e provavelmente nunca conseguirei).
O site que a BBC criou para celebrar a independência da India é um passo inicial para entender o país. E dois artigos recentes da são essenciais para os curiosos sobre as mudanças recentes: The changing values of modern India and Can India close the wealth gap?
Do primeiro artigo eu aprendi que nos anos 60:

"Such was the scarcity in the country that there was a Guest Control Order which meant you could not invite more than fifty people for a meal - at weddings all you got was a thin slice of ice cream."

Já o segundo me ensina sobre outsourcing rural:

"Bellary is home to one of India's first rural outsourcing centres, run by Indian steel maker JSW Steel Limited. The organisation has started two small operations on its Bellary campus, hiring young women from nearby villages to work in their rural processing centres. Here the girls spend their shifts punching in details of American patients' dental records, typing in a language many of them have only recently learned, using a machine many had never seen or heard of before. Twenty-year-old Savithri Amma has a basic high school diploma. She earns about $80 (£40) a month doing this work - the same as one of her peers might earn working as a house-help in Mumbai."