There are deeply rooted cultural differences in approaching education in western societies and India.

I would have been supprised if there were no significant differences.

Unfortunately I can't provide a link for it, but an Indian friend explained to me that historically constantly begging a "guru" to share his wisdom was more important than independent efforts.

But from my very little knowledge - or perhaps better titled as a little collection of (positive and negative) prejudices - I would assume that was for religious affairs only, perhaps a way to enlightment, or how ever you want to name it. But not for - let's say - daily business.

Anyway, shouldn't a guru shouting "stop pissing on my carpet" stop the begging one to piss on the carpet?

(Admitted, I see a little chance of a guru not being recognised as a guru. But then again, potty training ...)

You have to understand this cultural background (edit: and how the mass IT industry there hires people by quantity).

Regarding the IT industry, I was told about a failed IT outsourcing project from a friend who tried to manage that project. I trust his judgement, and according to him, it was not only a cultural "impedance mismatch". It was also a problem of failed education. "His" IT workers had been conditioned (I refuse to call that learned) to learn a ridiculously big 1-by-1 mapping of standard problems and standard solutions by heart, but lacked any understanding of what they were doing. Something like "press button A when the green light is lit, press button B when the red light is lit", multiplied by 1000. The problem with the project was that it required thinking outside the 1000 standard solutions. What should an indian worker bee do when suddenly a new light appears that - to make things worse - also emits a sound? At that point, the workers resorted to what looked like the most similar standard problem and mindlessly applied the conditioned standard solution. Of course, that could simply not work.

Oh of course I also asked my friend how to best handle these kind of persons. His answer was:

"Ignore them, they will have no shame wasting your time."

Wise words.

And of course if the attitude to ignore those people is prevalent, you start to understand how this tactic of constant devote begging formed shape.

Yes, of course.

Still, it's hard for me to work with people who actively refuse to use their brain. I'm kind of allergic to them, no matter which culture they come from.

Alexander

What you consider normal is relatively new and based on the Humboldtian model of higher education, which made modern sciences , mathematics and ultimately information technology possible.

200 years and earlier ago European universities were mainly theology and law schools, where things were learned by heart.

There are probably hundreds of millions of Indians with a comparable education, but many of those hired in Bangalore come from a very traditional context, and have a tremendous pressure from their families which invested in their education to succeed.

The end of colonization didn't mean the end of a class system in most countries, often the upper class was just replaced with a local one which still sends their kids to western schools, keeps their money in western banks and doesn't care much to "modernize" the local education system (not talking particularly about India here). °

So better stop investing emotions, if you see that your approach doesn't help with a monk and you start to feel uncomfortable, then better just excuse yourself and silently stop answering.

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)
Je suis Charlie!}

update

°) And to be fair, the absolute growth of a middle class has to compete with the birthrates of lower classes.