1) I spent a lot of time traveling very widely around India in my youth. The thing you have to understand is that people in India see it as the center of the universe, around which everything else – and I mean everything – has always revolved.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) September 19, 2023
Chovanec is a financial advisor who’s spent a lot of time living & traveling in Asia. He’s also smart and well-read, which is why I’m sharing his recommendations for books about the world’s most populous nation…
2) This is true of most countries, to some extent. But it strikes people outside of India as particularly baffling because they see most things that happen in India, past and present, as of only tangential relevance to them, at best. It is FAR from the center of their universe.
3) But once you understand that this is how Indians in India (as opposed to Indians who have emigrated) see things, a lot of other things start to make sense.
4) I remember sitting over dinner listening to people there debate which side public opinion in various countries would passionately take in a war between India and Pakistan. I delicately tried (but failed) to tell them that most people wouldn’t know – or care – which was which.
5) But you might say, they don’t care about we care about, either. And I would say right, but that doesn’t surprise me. It surprised them very much.
Yeah, I’ll offer a few, past and present, once I get home.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) September 19, 2023
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) September 19, 2023
Reading Reccomendations on <del>India</del> Bharat, Center of Its Own UniversePost + Comments (56)