who wants to be a millionare!

i am reading an interesting book on irrational behaviour. there are some great incidents that the authors have covered in the book. here's one on the who wants to be a millionare programme telecasted in France, USA, and Russia.

in France, this contestant Henri was doing quite well and one of the questions he was asked was, "what revolves around the earth?" options were, moon, venus, sun and mars. he didn't knew the answer so he went ahead with audience poll. more than 50 percent people said sun. Henri was out of the contest.

It is not that the French audience did not know the answer, it's just that they thought if Henri could not answer such an elementary question, he did not deserved to continue and take away the prize money!

in the US, people do not have any problems with anyone winning. Infact, they almost always help the participant.

in Russia the audience is known for giving mixed responses, and most of the time it's difficult to pick up the right answer. they generally do not like anyone winning money, and huge amount in particular. their decision making has roots in the past.

in older Russia, people were interdependent. sharing things with one another, lending a helping hand to people in need. they considered everyone to be equal. most people follow the same principle in modern life as well. therefore, anyone winning and becoming richer than the general mass is not acceptable. and so the game is not so popular in Russia.

learning russian...

i got enrolled myself for an mba degree from a reputed institute in moscow. the semester was to begin in august the following year, and as i had some time, i decided to learn russian language. i also bought a red color tshirt with a communist symbol printed on it.

a tutor started comming home for taking classes in russian. he was an old man with a stern face. he gave me gyaan on the importance of learning a language and other crap. he insisted on learning sanskrit for russian was more close to our own language. i asked him how would he say 'pathami pahaway pathsi pathat' in sanskrit. he seemed offended and asked me if i was trying to test his knowledge in sanskrit. he did not respond. that day and for the next three days i learnt aa, bay, vay, gha and other alphabets.

i was bored and i told him that. he asked what could be the other way to learn a foreign language. i suggested it would be good if he told me the russian equivalent of some basic english words. that day i learnt scaf, sistera, kartosh, komnata, and few other words.

next day i asked him the russian word for friend, boy, girl, and finally the last one [which i wanted to be the first] girlfriend. he was offended. i wanted to impress a girl i liked by speaking a little russian and using the girlfriend word. just wanted to try my luck by speaking a foreign language because hindi, english, kumaoni, and nepali had not been enough to directly communicate my feelings. and here this stupid buger was upset.

for the two weeks he did not turn up. by now i had lost interest in him, russian, and that girl. i saw bobby talking to her, and she smiling and laughing. which was rare when i hovered around her!

much later, we had two visitors from russia and an acquaintance had problems remembering their names. to vent my frustration and take some sort of revenge on the past russian experience, I simplified the pronounciation for the acquaintance. Poor Natasha and Dima had no idea why i was all smiles when this acquaintance would address them as batasha and dimak!

i could not join that mba program as the russian economy was down, and the college expenses were too high.