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Bangalore-based HR professional, Preeyan tells us about the challenges of working in a multi-cultural environment. Read more in the weekly column, exclusively in Different Truths.
Working in the kind of environment we have is fun. With all the interesting people you get to work with, this part of life is what we will carry with us to the end of our lives. We are all carving our way through this journey, leaving our own mark on the society. These marks may be small but are significant. What we endure at work is the fact that every other person working with us is different. A workplace is like a machine, every part is different and yet in sync with the integrity and works together to deliver performance.
We probably had the best time in our life, we went to a school where we only discussed secularism and religion were never at the forefront. We never saw our Muslim friends as radical and we never saw our Christian friends as religious converters and we never saw our Hindu friends as extremists. Hence today the culture that we brought about to our workplace has been secular and with no barriers to caste, creed or gender. We are the generation that will change this world. We have brought about gender equality and we will spearhead a movement where every person is equal and there are no regional, cultural or race differences.
India is the only country in the world that has so many cultural differences, races, and religious divide that secularism came to us naturally. Over the generations, we have become very tolerant and sharing. This has become Indian culture, and the world will soon follow.
It is such a pleasure to work in our country, the differences start with the language and dialects, no two 
cities in our country is the same. With the boom in the corporate segment in the country, more people are migrating. You will find a representative of every state in all our metros and state capitals. It’s absolutely amazing!
What used to be a celebration of specific regions have now become across the country. What used to be a phenomenon in a particular location is being followed across cities. This closeness and unity have been brought about by our generation.
We wait for the sweets for Dussehra and Diwali, we wait for our Plum Cake for Christmas and we starve for the Biryani of Ramadan and Bakrid. We all party like crazy on New Year’s Eve and celebrate the spirit of Nationality on Independence Day and Republic Day. We all hang out, have fun and yet maintain our religious practices and beliefs. All this has been made possible by our workplace.
The workplace may be influenced a lot by the western countries, like for example, our old traditional lawyers and auditors offices now look modern and swanky with air conditioning today. Yet it the western influence is only in the looks and we Indians have learned to make this place our own. You walk into any office in India, especially during festive seasons, any one coming from outside the country will be overwhelmed by the way we are as people. We are boisterous, loud and crazy at times. We love talking in our mother tongue regardless of whether the person in front of us understands us or not. We love to overreact and we love to express ourselves. Yet we are at peace at work and love to be there.
This is what makes us different. We go to other countries and when we don’t have much of a group we just mingle with the crowd, but whence in a group, we change the whole workplace even in a strange country. This is possible only because of our roots. We are so used to living in a multicultural environment that we just cannot settle down like dust in a boring place with no differences.
All this has also made us very emotional, we get emotionally attached with to everything, and sometimes
even as silly as a chair we sit on. This emotional attachment has proven that we are probably the best workers in the world. This emotional attachment makes us care for everything.
What we lack in strength and power as our Caucasian cousins from the west we make up for with intellect and drive. We may be different on the outside, in terms of our language, culture, clothing, and traditions but on the inside, we are the same all of us from across the country West to East and North to South. The unity in diversity is what we have as our culture. That is Indian culture, it is Indian work culture. Our work environment is unique, we create and set trends, we have to be proud that as Indians we bring so much history to a culture that we all need to be proud to be part of.
Let’s protect this environment, let’s strive to create a better world for the generations to come. Thanks to this workplace environment that we will be able to create this for the future. Let’s work together and mould our future the way we want it.
Cheers!
©Preeyan Abraham
Photos from the Internet
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