The good things about American culture

At one of the gas stations which doesnt accept credit card I noticed that everybody fills the gas at gas station (completely blocked out of the view of the owner sitting inside a shop) and goes inside the shop honestly to make payment all the while unsupervised. This stuff is impossible to find in India. A sharp contrast to the perception some of us assume in India about American culture.
People are very hard working here . Teens start working very early and they make their own money to finance their college. The maturity level in them is high as compared to Indian teens.
People are very knowledgeable about the work they do. Meritocracy is given very high importance and everyone does his or her job well . People know their stuff and moreover they enjoy doing it well.
Lastly women are given more respect than in India and treated on a more or less equal footing as men.

Software developers - work at home

Development of software doesn't really require you to work at a same place .First I am going to list some of the things people say about working in an office . The advantage of an office is that it gives people less of an excuse to slack off .There are other people watching you and you become sort of more accountable.Face to face communication is surely more effective than say communicating through telephone or email.Also it involves a sort of social gathering where people can chit chat for a while.Working alone does become little lonely.But these advantages do lose their significance when you compare it to working alone.People can slack off at office also.The bad thing about working in an office is that sometimes you have to pretend that you are working simply because the cubicle of boss is just next to your cubicle .Some people do come early and work till evenings not because they are doing great work but simply because they have to impress other people . There can be new models of accountability besides man hours put into work i.e. one can gauge the amount and kind of work you do in fixed time at your own sweet convenience. Ok no substitute for face to face communication but video teleconferencing comes pretty close. About being socially comfortable I believe person should put their best effort during the 'office hours' and can socialize to his or her heart's content in his free time.Although I would say there is no substitute for office friends and all those office romances. When I say you don't need to be physically present with your colleagues I mean that you can collaborate quite closely with1.an instant messenger.2.telephone.3.Some video conferencing software.4.file sharing software.That means that would save millions of dollars of rental cost ,office equipment and hardware costs.Also it would lead to increase in productivity as people would work in quite and soothing environment of their home or in whatever place they want to live.But this concept involves a paradigm shift in thinking and people are generally so impervious to change .Or wouldn't working at home and collaborating on internet like open source guys do wouldn't have become more popular in software industry from the time internet did came into widespread use.

calorie restriction

Calorie restriction is a technique for increasing the maximum life spans in humans. It is basically reducing the energy intake while packing your diet full of minerals and vitamins. Although much research hasnt been done on the subject in humans and is limited to small animals,its proponents swear that it is only scientifc proven theory that elongote life. The effect has lead to a lower cholestrol levels resulting in better cardiovascular health in humans ,reduced blood sugar preventing diabetes and BMI levels of around 19 which is at a lower level in humans and reduced weight . The clinical trials are currently going for humans .This regime is not without its side effects which include feeling lethargy and tired ,depression, and risking muscle loss .(the people generally restrict the calorie intake to 1600 cal which is around 800 calories less than 2400 calories --the recommended value for normal diet).Also CR can be pretty expensive and require quite a bit of discipline.

Driving in USA - what we Indians can learn from Americans

I just passed my driving knowledge exam and will soon start taking driving exam before I give my practical exam . Driving here is a lot safer as compared to India although cars are lot faster here . The average speed on highways is nearly 70 mph which comes to 112 km/hr while cars hardly travel at 70 km per hour on highways in india.
The emergency vehicles have a right of way. Most people will die on their way of hospital or the house will get burned down before the fire brigade arrives in India. Not here . People pull over to the right side of the road (here you drive in opposite direction) and stop . All the cars out there give way and make sure emergency vehicles reach to their destination as soon as possible....
Driving is very pleasurable. No honking of horns unless it is an emergency. People drive at one speed in their own lane. Seperate lane for motorbikes. The road gets constructed extremely fast here and hardly you see bad roads. An array of road signs to help you in every possible way.
The businesses ( shops ) are required to have proportionate parking space for vehicles. That means you will never have any parking problems . Also a seperate parking area for disabled people.
Good traffic engineering allows less wait times at signal . Go left (right in india ) if there is no oncoming traffic.
Hey best part for pedestrians . One yields the way for pedestrians if they are crossing the road near signals or businesses parking spaces . One cant imagine a similar situation in India where you can die if you try to go before on foot before a vehicle .
Stop behind a school bus if it has a red signal behind it . YES traffic light attached behind a school bus. :)