Seoul Curry

 

 Seoul - Infinitely yours

Recently I had been to South Korea, one of the four 'Asian tigers'. Specifically, I had been to the very live and bustling city of Seoul, the place where the Miracle on the Han river took place. This event refers to the phenomenal economic success of the Seoul city in particular, and South Korea in general in the last 3-4 decades.  It is a story of the epic rise of a country from being war-ravaged  in the 1950s to becoming an awe inspiring, sky touching, electronics producing giant. A GDP growth chart is suffice to astonish us with the sheer growth rate and consistency with which South Korea has recorded its economic growth.

South Korea's GDP (PPP) Growth from 1911 to 2010 - Source Wikipedia

I was in Seoul for almost one and a half months, working for a Korean customer mainly to initiate them about our product and set up their development environment. I lived in a hotel for the first week and then moved to a service apartment for the remainder of my stay. The service apartment was compact and clean, had a double bed, TV, AC, heating, kitchenette with a fridge, hot plates and microwave. I had a very high speed internet connection, which I (ab)used thoroughly :P. 

Its surprising that living in a different country actually taught me more about my country, as I could contrast the two countries quite nicely. I saw India in a new light, and am glad for this that I went to South Korea. I say this because at one point in time there was a significant chance of me not going.

I am listing some random observations about Seoul below, in no particular order, just as they come to my head now. Its been more than a month since I am back.

1. Seoul is a very clean city by Indian standards. Most notably, no candy wrappers, empty guthka packets, paan spits, or paper and plastic junk. However, cigarette butts abound. 
2. Almost every adult male smokes. Heavily. Not good at all.
3. Almost every adult male drinks. Most are moderate drinkers. South Korea has one of the the highest per capita drinking rates in the world .
4. Surprisingly, I hardly found anyone fat in Korea, leave aside obese.
5. The complete city is very handicap-friendly. All the pavements have inclines, all staircases have elevators. Even foot over bridges.
6. The Seoul subway system is very extensive, covering ALL parts of the city as well as the satellite towns and outskirts.It is the dire need of the hour for all Indian metropolitan cities to have such a system. Only New Delhi to some extent can claim to have such a metro. Mumbai has a fast and efficient 'local' train system but its stretched beyond limits.
7. Bus system in Seoul is also very good. Buses are segregated according to the route length and area and marked with different colours accordingly.
8. Even with a good bus system, its very difficult for a foreigner to use it because of the lack of English signs on the bus and bus stops. I couldn't make head or tail of which bus to take to go where. The subway though has excellent navigational facilities for the English speakers.
9. As obvious from the previous point, proficiency in English is lacking severely throughout the country. Most people can actually read the English alphabet, but struggle to coin together a complete and grammatically correct sentence. Thankfully, everywhere Arabic numbers are used, so its not a problem at the checkout counter of the local supermarket.
10. Hong Kong and Incheon airports are way too cool. India doesn't have a  single airport that can match up to either of the airports.

A long and rambling post comes to an end.  My current favourite song - 'Tu Jaane Na (Unplugged)' from the movie Ajab Prem ki Gazab Kahani. Artist - Kailash Kher.