NBs eee Se HOW MANY INDIAS? | Read the text. Why do you think ‘every journey to India is the first one"? According to one Indian proverb: ‘Every journey to India is the frst one” India is a huge county. itis the word's largest democracy and with over | bilion peopl, i isthe second ‘mast populous country in the world (China is the most populous). India is a truly multicultural country with 16 official languages, including English and Hindi, and up to 1.700 other native languages are spoken today. Hindi is spoken by 30% ofthe population and English is known as a link language’ ~ the language people use to communicate across cultures, Can you think of another situation in which English is a link language? WORLD OF WORDS 2 Use your dictionar democracy. sto write a definition of democracy " Think ofthe places you inhabit: your country, your town, your home, your clas. Ae they always democratic? How ‘an you help them function as democratically as possible? ‘Share your ideas with the class. oe 12 RELIGION IN INDIA India has an ancient and rich culture. I is the home of Hinduism, one of the oldest religions in the world. Itis also the home of Buddhism and Sikhism and has the third largest Muslim population in the world Life and culture in India are both closely linked with religion. The best-loved traditional literature and music are based on religious philosophy and the ‘mast popular form of medicine, Ayurveda, is also one ofthe six systems of Hindu thought. Yoga, one ofthe world’s most popular hobbies, was orginally a Hindu form of meditation. Diwali, or the festival of light. isthe most important religious festival. It marks the end of the Hindu year and is lebrated throughout the world with fireworks displays. to worw.worldaround.cclworldofpeople and read what Neelu says about Diwali. Write what she does each day of the festival Day One Day Two Day Three Day Four Day Five ANDES «ip inir emt mili UL‘ US ther by simply jolnng thelr hands, bowing and saying “Namaste” Read and listen to the meaning of the greeting ‘namaste’ Namaste | honour the place in you where the entire universe resides | honour the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace | honour the place within you ‘where. if you are in that place in you, and | am in that place in me, there i only one of us SOE5 Listen and write the order in which the following ‘events took place. 6 Listen again and write the dates. o ‘The East Indian Company was founded o The Indian Mutiny took place o ‘Vasco da Gama came to India o ‘Queen Victoria became the Empress of Inca o ‘The Indian Emperor allowed the East India ‘Company to trade without paying taxes, o The Indian National Congress was founded o “The East India Company ‘owned 23 factaries in India, o “The East India Company ruled most of the Indian sub-continent. o Gandhi returned to India 7 Use the dates to write a short history of British rule in Ind Check by listening to the CD ig) 2 t= West ties tor CED more about colonial history (page #7). Is there anyone you particularly admire? Why? Prepare a short presentation on them for the clas. => THE BRITISH IN INDIA GANDHI 8 Before you read, think of what you know about Gandhi. Share ‘with a partner. Mohandas Gandhi was born in India in 1869, He went to Landon to study law and after his degree went to work in South Alica where there was a large Indian community. Gandhi became involved in civil rights and developed his theory of Satyagraha: non-violent protest. In 1914 he returned to India and joined the Indian National Congress He encouraged people to boycott British 00ds and institutions in protest against British rule. The British arrested thousands of Indians, including Gandhi, but everyone lined up happily to goto jal. He encouraged all Indians ich and oor, to wear only Indian clothes made from Indian cloth, and involved women in the independence movement by asking them to spend time each day making homemade clothes in order to boycott imported ones. In 1930 he led the Salt March, in protest against the taxes the people had to pay on salt. He was arrested once more, but his message had reached millions of Indians who started to make their own salt or buy sat from unofficial Gandhi started the ‘Quit india’ campaign in order to get the British to leave the county. In 1947 India was made independent but was divided into the two countries of India (with a Hindu majority) and Pakistan (with a Muslim ‘majocty). This division saddened Gandhi and he refused to celebrate India's independence with the rest ofthe country's political leaders. He was assassinated in 1948 by an extremist. Gandhi was voted “Greatest person of the millennium: 9 WORLD OF WORDS Find out more about the Salt March. Write a report explaining what happened and what it was about. crim Gandhi was given the name "Mahatma! by his close friend, the poet Tagore Mahatma means ‘Great soul” in Hindu, GANDHI SAID... 10 Which of these quotes from Gandhi do you like best? Why? Explain to a partner what they mean in practical terms. Di The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness isan attribute ofthe strong. i Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Lear as if you were to live forever Li There is more to lif than simply increasing its speed, Bi Fear is not a disease ofthe body: fear ks the soul Zl An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind. 113.TE all centre Seo LONG-DISTANCE TUITION 1 Read the text. When 16-year-old Chris, from Boston, Massachusetts, needs help with her homework she doesnt ask her mum or dad She goes straight to her computer and logs onto an online tutoring service where she can talk to her own personal tutor. Chris's tutor isin Bangalore India and is pat ofthe TutorVista Service. Chis pays just $2.50 for her tutoring as ‘opposed to $40 an hour charged for US online tutoring services of $100 an hour for one-on-one tuition. And Chris is top of her class in the subjects she gets online help int! In Bangalore alone over 500 specialised teachers offer online tutoring from their own homes through instant messaging, webcams and interactive screens For centuries privileged Ind abroad, now. thanks tothe current economic boom, the ‘world is turning to India to help their children. 3s sent their children to study ‘According toa recent survey | in 3 Brtsh schoolehildren ‘et tutoring at some stage Have you had tutoring? Do you. think tutoring is @ good idea? ‘Think of situations when tutoring is 3 good idea and situations when it may be a bad idea, ‘Share with a partner. 4 Soe ee cy 2 Read the text, then answer the question below. When the Indian Government decided to liberalise the economy and encourage the Information Technology industry, Bangalore saw its opportunity and created a new industrial distnict called Electonic City where hi-tech companies could ‘open up offices. Thanks to their foresig 's population has grown from 2.8 milion in 1990 to 6.5 milion today india, and Bangaloc in particular, has now become the centre ofthe plobal IT services industry. 500 multi-national, including inte, IBM and Microsoft have operations in Bangalore. Many of them outsource jabs such as technical support, accountancy and administration to thei Indian offices, ‘Why do you think companies want to outsource their work to India? °@ the In pairs think of reasons, then listen to Dinesh Singh from Microsoft's Global Research Centre in Bangalore. WORLD 4 Can you match these business terms with their meanings? ¥ Outsourcing a Moving all of a company’s operations toa different county ‘Companies owned by the multinational they do outsourcing for Offices where workers provide ‘customer services on the phone Moving some company functions to an external company, —— thee est cies inthe wo an South oe 2Callcentes b&b 3 Offshoring 4 Captive firms ' Mumbai (Bombay) 13,073,926 2 Karachi 11,608,000 3 Delhi 11,505,196BRITNEY IN BANGALORE Read the text. Why are call centre staff getting language and culture training? People who are working at cal centres in india are tetting pronunciation lessons in order to make theit accents sound mote lke those ofthe people they are speaking to on the phone Research has shown that. potential customers react best when they can talk to someone who sounds just lke they do, As well as. practising their pronunciation students are taught how to make small tak and how to cultivate an ‘American or Brtsh accent Zia Sheikh, the co-founder and director of Infowavz International in Mumbai, said that new staff had to go through a month-long traning programme to help them neutralise their accents and learn about the culture ofthe countries they are serving, Then they are given Western pseudonyms such as Britney” and Brad instead oftheir eal names and they are ‘expected to watch fms from the UK and US to find ‘out how people ive thei ives. In many call centres workers have weather reports on their computers of where the calls coming from so they can pretend they are based inthe same area. That way they can make comments such as “it's really cold today, inti?” even though they'e sitting in India where the temperature is high! However not everyone is happy about the boom. Many locals are upset because Kannada, the native language of Bangalore has become @ minority language inthe city with many people now speaking Hinglsh’, a miture of Hindi and English! WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Hinglish is one of the trendiest languages at the moment in India and in the Asian ‘community in Britain. One of the newest verbs is ‘to bangalore’ Can you work out what it means in the sentence below? ‘Thousands of jobs inthe Western IT industry are ANTES my ~ Chetan Bhat is Stuatng nla ator He V eeieaiog Nghia ieGal Coe cone aaa wate ace wate we ne ‘technical support for a major ete 1 {9 non te tet thn ag wht Me Paton See eares (H) one wight @ The Call Centre Sometimes we had customers that were oddballs, even by call desk standards. | won't go into all of them but ‘Vroom’ 10:37 p.m. call went something lke this: "Good afternoon, Western Appliances, Vicor speaking, how may I help you?” Vroom said. ‘Yes, Ms Paulson, of course we remember you. Happy “Thanksgiving, | hope you're roasting a big turkey in our \WA\100 model oven’ Vroom said, reading from a script ‘that reminded us of the American festival ofthe day. | couldn't hear the customer's side of the conversation, bbut Ms Paulson was obviously explaining her problem, with the oven. “"No, Ms Paulson, you shouldn't have unscrewed the cover’ Vroom said, as politely as possible. “No, really madam. An electrical appliance like the ‘WA\100 should only be serviced by trained professionals,” \Vroom said, reading from the WA00 service manual “You see, madam, you need to explain to me why you ‘opened the top cover. Then perhaps well understand why you got an electric shock... 50 tell me ... es... oh really?” Vroom continued, taking deep breaths, Patience did not come naturally to him. “You see, madam,’ Vroom was still with Ms Paulson, "I understand your turkey didn't fit and you didn't want to cut, but you should not have opened up the equipment But you see that’s not the equipments fault... can't really tell you what to do ...| understand your son is ‘coming, madam ... Now if you had the WA150, that’s a bigger size. And next time, get a smaller turkey ... and yes, a readymade turkey would be a good idea for tonight... No! don’t have a dial-eturkey number. Thank you for calling, Ms Paulson, bye” Vroom ended the call.NS) ean) + domestic violence + d ae eee ARRANGED MARRIAGES ‘5 Read this opinion on arranged marriages. Discuss with a partner. What points do you agree with and what points do you disagree with? ‘Acranged marriages take the pressure of the dating scene out of a girs life. They take most of the guessing work out ofthe dating game. The difference between your parents finding a gicIboy for you and you finding them yourselves is that your patents do all the background checks for you ~ they know about your potential spouse's family, education, job reputation. Pretty much everything you have to work hard to find out when you are dating Parents usualy have the child's best interests at hear, plus they look a the potential partner with an objective eye. instead ofthe starry-eyed view of those who cannot see beyond their boy or girlfriend's appearance. Also, objective parents might be beter at judging a couple's compatibility than the couple themselves, Another plus point of arranged marriages is that the parents and fais fom bot sides have vested mich ine and LOVE. ‘energy in the marriage that they are an invaluable support Rend the text. What isthe differance between an group tat can hep he coupe thy hae sy probes ranged mariage and forced mariage? Aranged mariage ae common thoughout Al, Many Jamgpene now ton ansny ager ell QIENTATEND Choose tbe ot groom fr then In Europe up util the eth cerry most mariage were arangd ch fares chose ch partner ther chien and pote es looked fr stonghealty partners who could work, ‘Romantic’ love as we know it today is a relatively modem concept. Usually the most important part of an arranged mariage is the link that is created between the two families. Often thet land or properties are joined to make them more valuable. or the marriage can help them gain greater social status. When @ rmartiage is aranged, the young people involved can choose whether they want to go through with the marrage or not However, fusing to mary someone is usually seen as a lack LOVE of respect for your parents and families, and very few couples refuse to get marred 6 Think of all the ways we use the word ‘love’ (as a ‘Arranged marriages become forced marriages ifthe young. noun and a verb). What is love? Share your people haven choice. They may feel guilty or they may be definition with the class. presse By tek fois > Bet tie 7 Now read the following statements. Tick (V) the * cones you agree with. Discuss them with a partner. 2 Listen to 18-year-old Rupali, ares bes from England, talking about Eile is forever love is blind Low is the same for everyone Love's diferent indifferent cultures Loves for grown-ups Loves for young people her forced marriage. Think of three questions you would ask Rupali’s parents. a b 3 With a partner, imagine their answers. ‘Whit are the most important things in a successful telationship? Think ofa least three things. What causes 4 Imagine you are Rupali. Write a letter to your friend ‘elationships to break down? How important are explaining what happened and how you managed relationships in your life? to escape. ne 11632h D IS FOR DOWRY 8 Read the text, then answer the questions in Let's Talk below. A dowry is a quantity of money or other valuable possessions (ewellery. houses, or land) that a bride gives her husband:-to-be before they get married. Dowries have been illegal in India since 1961, but the tradition of giving dowries is stil strong, Raising enough money to guarantee a good dowry. and hopefully a good marriage arrangement, for a daughter can be a huge worry for many Indian parents. I there is more than one it in the family, the parents are often forced to sell their possessions or take outa loan in order to meet excessive dowry demands. The case of three sisters who attempted suicide in Corder to save their father from financial ruin highlighted the problem. In ther suicide note the gis said that they wanted to dle in order to save the family from the struggle to raise dowry money. Previous attempts to arrange marriages forthe sisters had fled because the family did not have enough money. However, once a gil is marred her problems are not necessarily over. Every year there ae approximately 5,000 downy deaths’ in India alone. These are women who are killed (usually burned) by ther husbands or in-laws because their dowry is considered to be disappointing, Many of these deaths ate catalogued as ‘domestic accidents’ and they leave the man free to marry, and demand a dowry, again. RO evs TALK ci Did you find this article shocking? What parts of it are shocking? With a partner, discuss ways of informing young women and their families about their dowries. How can the Indian government stop the practice of owes? 9 Brea ve wa Whats 0 import set Wa Nake Sina a Wht he nee to young people? Discuss with a partner. Dowry woman becomes textbook star Nisha Sharma became famous because she cancelled her wedding and got her Rance arrested afer he demanded more dowry money. Her story has now made it onto the school curriculum. The new English textbook for the sinth standard ~ age 1140 12~inchides a chapter on Nisha An official in the education department says I think ovr is socialise and children should be made aware about It makes sense to teach children about ‘women like Nisha, because she is @ postive role model for both boys and ils” Nisha became a role model for middle-class women ‘because she called the police when her hushand4o-be, MrDalal, asked her parents for moce dowry money on her wedding day, She cannot understand what all the fassis about did do anything exraordnang” she says. “Ie was something that happened to me and Thad deal with ic at that time. They came and asked us for more money at dhe last inte, so I sad no. My father has always told me to stand up for mysell And that's what Teli. stood up for myself and my fais.” But she adds: “fel eldren should be made aware ‘ofthese things. With this they'l learn that dey should oatfont things. They should come forward and ght” OVER TO YOU 10 In groups design a poster aimed at raising awareness about the problems caused by dowry demands. How isan engagement recognised in your country? How are weddings celebrated? Write down typical aspects of a ‘wedding in your country. Compare with a partner. A there any details that might sem strange or absurd toa foreigner? —_— 7