An Australian woman living in India recently took to Instagram to share her thoughts about the cultural differences between India and the West, especially those pertaining to the household culture and work life balance. The woman, identified as Bree Steele, said that in India, most families have domestic workers for household chores.
“I don’t cook or clean in India. Chores? I don’t know them,” she said in her Instagram video. “Most middle-class to wealthy households in India have house help. Most people have someone who does their cleaning, maybe their washing and cooking,” Steele further said in the video.
She further went onto compare her life in India with the West, where people manage cooking and other household chores along with full-time jobs. “I was like, that’s what we do in the west. We do everything ourselves with full-time jobs.”
Steele, who is a podcast producer by profession, said that Indians also lack a work-life balance and that her friends get work calls at odd hours of the day.
“Over time, I’ve observed that my friends get work calls at like 9:30 in the night, and there’s no work-life balance here. The expectation on corporate workers is just so high that if you’re single, of course you don’t have time to do your own cooking and cleaning.”
She further said that for better or for worse, labour is cheap in India, thus, it makes sense that everyone has their own house help. Towards the end of her video, she said that she is “ashamed” that she enjoys not having to cook or clean daily in India.
Her take on the cultural differences between India and the West went viral within no time. While some users agreed with her observations, others explained why they would prefer to live in the West instead.
A user said: “What a keen observation and So well expressed my girl!! It’s really not talked about enough, but you’ve nailed both sides!!!”
“India spoils everyone in this aspect,” a second user commented.
“Need to provide jobs to everyone. . If you can afford it why not. You are making their lives easy too. India is the BEST,” a third user explained.
“As some who grew up in India with the so called privileges and then moved to the west, and does all the chores, I’ll pick the west every single time. Despite the chores, I still have a LOT of spare time that I spend on my hobbies and health. Despite all the help in India, I lived an unhealthy and tired life,” a fourth user stated.
“Not mentioning commute time, and Indian moms being Indian moms need to look into kids’ studies. Plus the social life too. Somehow it seems easier in the west, I can say that cause I lived in US for a long time to comment,” yet another user weighed in.
