The discipline and process-orientation of the Japanese is legendary. Things work like clockwork in the country. Much of it is built on a strong cultural foundation. We in India also have a rich culture, but we seem to be giving in short-shrift.

In Japan, culture unites. In India, culture divides. In Japan, culture creates ties that bind. In India, culture is creating schisms that are threatening some of the fabric of the country.

In Japan, culture is visible everywhere – right from the airport as you see the attendant at the bus stop bowing as the bus goes ahead on its way. In India, in our eagerness to embrace the modern, we are forgetting the things that connect us together. That is something we have to change.