Life In A Developed Country (Part 1)

A random compilation of the everyday differences between UK and India

It is common knowledge that life in the developed west is better than that in India. How exactly is it better? After spending 6 months in London, I think I can begin to answer that question.

Often, broad, reductive statements like “quality of life is better” are thrown around. In this post, I will try to keep things as palpable as possible and abstain from abstractions. For example, if you have wondered “How are western countries so fucking clean, and why is there so much dust in India?” then read on.

The nature of this topic is such that making broad generalizations is inevitable. So, please keep in mind that the differences I am outlining are not to be treated as objective truths about the 2 countries. Rather, they are differences that **I** have observed. Subjective. Here is a non-exhaustive list of factors that constitute my subjective lens:

• Socio-economic background in India: I come from a middle-middle-class (as in, not upper-middle or lower-middle) family in the southern part of India. This factor most significantly contributes to my subjectivity as it dictates the lifestyle I lead and thus, affects how I see the world. If you are not from a similar background, you might not agree with some of the things I point out.
• Socio-economic background in London: I consider myself to be borderline upper-middle-class.
• London is my first trip to a developed country (discounting the one trip to Singapore and Malaysia that every middle-class Indian family takes their teenage offspring(s) to).
• I do not have an unreasonably stressful job.
• I will try to back the explanations with data whenever possible but most explanations are based on intuition.
• The differences I am pointing out are based on the behavior of the majority. There are always minorities and exceptions.
• There are reasons why India is better than London and there are downsides to living in London as well. But this article is not about those things.

With that long-ass disclaimer out of the way, let’s jump in shall we?

#1 Self-checkout in your everyday grocery retail stores.