It was while standing in line to board an aircraft at an Italian airport that the thought first occurred to me. As the crowd built up behind me I could hear many raised voices having animated conversations on their cellphones without a care as to who was listening in. And in about 15 minutes what had been an orderly queue when we started out had turned into an amorphous mass of people.
Honestly, I thought to myself, I could be back in India! There was the same lack of awareness that we were in a public space and that it wouldn't do to disturb the peace of other people. And there was the same cheerful flouting of boring old rules like standing in a line while waiting.
The more I thought I about it the more I became convinced that Indians and Italians are really the same people. And not just in terms of their common disregard for any kind of civic discipline (anyone who has driven in Delhi will feel right at home on the streets of Rome!) but in more positive ways as well.
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