While it may be dangerous to generalize, I think the fundamental difference between Indians and Americans is that we are handicapped by a fear of failure, while they don't hide their hopes or fears and are far more upfront with their emotions. Americans applaud ambition and worship success, especially the rags to riches kind, while we dislike underdogs (know your place) and display a reverence for authority that borders on the absurd. Americans cheerfully say, "Have a nice day", as frequently as their waitresses ask, "Do you want fries with that?", but we Indians can rarely bring ourselves to express such sentiment. We have been conditioned from the cradle upwards to believe that failure and disappointment lurk around every corner. It's karma yaar, whatever.
American kids are brought up to believe they can be the next president, while we believe we have found the pearl in life's oyster when we get an employment offer from Infosys; it's quite another matter that Narayanmurthy, the founder, was mighty miffed when his presidential aspirations came to naught, but I digress. For a nation given to piously quoting Gandhi at the drop of a topi, we revere hypocrisy as much as we disregard the truth.
Things are somewhat different in Britain where they use irony as liberally as we use chutney. Brits tease each other unmercifully using sarcasm as a shield and a weapon and sincerity is avoided like the plague unless medically prescribed. As Ricky Gervais says, "We take the piss out of people we like or dislike and ourselves. This is very important. Our brashness and swagger is laden with equal portions of self-deprecation. This is our license to hand it out. This can sometimes be perceived as nasty if the recipients aren't used to it. It isn't. It's play fighting and it's almost a sign of affection if we like you, and ego bursting if we don't. You just have to know which one it is."
Nothing is off limits for Gervais, be it gay rights, the Holocaust or even that holiest of holies: Me Too. After his controversial hosting of the Golden Globes, he was accused of being cruel and cynical: a shock comic. But nothing could be further from the truth since he's a rare breed of human. "I never actively try to offend. That's churlish, pointless and frankly too easy. But I believe you should say what you mean. Be honest. No one should ever be offended by truth. That way you'll never have to apologize. As a comedian, I think my job isn't just to make people laugh but also make them think. As a famous comedian, I also want a strict door policy on my club. Not everyone will like what I say or find it funny. And I wouldn't have it any other way. There are enough comedians who try to please everyone as it is. Good luck to them, but that's not my game. I'm not one of those people who think that comedy is your conscience taking a day off. My conscience never takes a day off and I can justify everything I do."
Whether it's in the political sphere or the workplace or even in the playing arena, as a nation we are not in the habit of plain speaking which is why we are often economical with the truth. I can't bear it when people preface their remarks with, "To be honest…" I'm often tempted to say, "So the rest of the time, you've been lying?" Gandhi's seminal work, "My Experiments with Truth" carries a weird dissonance nowadays: it appears to have become a national malady with all and sundry being economical with the truth or merely experimenting with it.
