Why India Runs on “Chalta Hai”
For better or for worse, a simple phrase shapes the world’s most populous country.
Gripping the edge of my seat, my cousins and I watched as the car swerved onto the wrong side of the road. We wove through the oncoming traffic: colorful trucks, motorbikes, auto-rickshaws, pedestrians, and some cows. Some horns blared in protest; most people veered left and right cavalierly. “We’re on the wrong side of the road,” my cousin said to our driver, a middle-aged man with a magnificent mustache. “Chalta hai, madam,” he shrugged, taking his hands off the wheel to gesture.
“Chalta hai,” loosely translated as “it goes” or “it’s okay,” is more than just a phrase in India. It’s the “let it be” that motivated everyone from The Beatles to yoga instructors across the West to look at Indian spirituality for anxiety relief. But is this “let it be” attitude also a disadvantage for a growing country?