In January of 2023 i.e. about 6 months ago, I moved to the Netherlands. Having spent 26 years in India, I couldn’t help but compare the Netherlands to India. It was and still is an interesting mental exercise to compare 2 different societies. In this post, I would be sharing my initial impressions of the Netherlands along with some of the questions I’ve tried to answer.

Brave New World

Before even moving to Amsterdam, I was filled with anxiety and excitement. It is only recently after turning 25 that I’ve started experiencing slight anxiety. I’ve tried to self diagnose it but that’s a story for another post. So, I set my first foot in Amsterdam on a cold and windy day. It was unlike anything that I had experienced before. Since I had done my research, it wasn’t surprising. But just knowing how cold it was going to be in theory did not stop the pain nerves in my fingers from reacting to the absurdly cold winds. I mostly just endured through it, made it to my cab and arrived at my hotel.

Over the next few weeks, I was introduced to a completely new world. A working public transport, existence of trams, central heating, dedicated bike lanes, the killer combo of cold rains and winds, big supermarkets like Albert Heijn, absence of MRP (maximum retail price) and lastly the use of toilet paper instead of a bidet. Again, in theory I knew about all of it but Wikipedia articles can only take you so far. Experiencing all of it ignited this curiosity spark and I consequently spent hours researching things like efficiency of toilet paper compared to water or why doesn’t India have bike lanes etc.

Energy Per Capita

Because I had moved to the Netherlands in the winters, the high energy per capita of European countries became a reality from just statistics. Per capita, the Netherlands uses 8.4 times more energy than India (54,673 KW vs 6,438 KW). And I could finally see that in the form of central heating and well built infrastructure. Majority of Indian citizens are just too poor to afford niceties like home heating. Even when compared to the region of Himalayas where it gets even colder than Amsterdam. Please note that I am not saying that it is wrong to consume more energy, rather on the contrary I’m asserting that high energy per capita consumption is one of a better way to measure human development. Especially in the context of the Kardashev scale.

Biking Infrastructure

The research into public transport led me to the youtube channel Not Just Bikes. The channel talks about efficient infrastructure and why bicycles are always almost a better form of commute than cars. However, given that the YouTuber has only lived in rich countries like Canada and Netherlands, there is hardly any talk of the poor and developing world. So I wanted to answer why doesn’t India and other middle income countries have bicycle infrastructure?

It’s completely my opinion but having lived in giant Indian cities like New Delhi and Bangalore, I think there are more incentives to build roads than bicycles infrastructure and people actually do vote for cars. Bicycles pays economic dividends indirectly. It makes citizens more happy, and as I’ve noticed in Amsterdam, ability to quickly bike around also encourages local shopping instead of online shopping. It also frees up space for other economic activity. However the car infrastructure pays dividends to the economy and most importantly to the government even before a car is sold. A democratic government which optimizes for votes will work hard to make headlines which includes key words like jobs and manufacturing. A car industry provides jobs not only in manufacturing and repair shops but also in insurances, financing, marketing, road construction and petroleum industry. Hence for a poor country which wants to get most economic returns in the shortest time possible, I think cars still provide the most value. I also think this line of reasoning can be applied to even more non-optimal sectors of a society but I will need to refine my argument and research more before I write more about it.

Beyond Demographics

Besides researching the new things which I was introduced to here, I noticed one other thing. The demographics. People in Bangalore are mostly very young. Almost everyone I met in Bangalore was in their 20s. However in Amsterdam, all of society seems to participate in the economy. For example, when I was setting up my apartment, I needed some help to assemble the tricky sofa bed. The handyman who arrived was 55 years old! I had never experienced anything like that in India. The median age of India is 28 years whereas it is 42 years in the Netherlands but I don’t think that is the only reason.

I think the real reason lies in the difference in the societal structure. In most Asian cultures, children live with their parents well into their adulthoods. As children start making more money, parents almost always just retire and take care of their children’s children and other household jobs. However in Europe and by extension the western culture, individuality as a concept is given grave importance. Thus, I feel like not only older people in Europe can’t entirely rely on their children but also they actually just don’t want to.

This is not a new observation. However when combined with the rhetoric of demographic dividend i.e. having more young people compared to the old people is good for capitalist economy, this observation can lead to new conclusions. For example if older people in a society A are more educated and willing to work when compared to old people of society B then even if society A have fewer young people, it would still continue to have better economic output.

However I am not old enough or have really old friends to make a proper informed opinion of which societal structure is better. I prefer Individualism but I also understand the value of a tribe and family.

No Dogs and Indians!?

In colonial India, India faced immense racism from European power, the United Kingdom. No Dogs and Indians is a popular well documented sign. I had faced racism in the form of a real life shadow ban in Singapore until I had shaved my beard. I was curious, would it be the same in the Netherlands?

I’m happy to report that in the last 6 months, I have NOT faced any racism in the Netherlands. People of the Netherlands are extremely educated and well mannered. Also Amsterdam is truly an international city with expats from all over the world. And lastly in my profession of software engineering the only currency which matters is your communicative and engineering skills.

Btw I also did the experiment of shaving my beard vs full beard in the Netherlands and there was no change in people’s behavior. In Singapore, a clean shaven look is vastly preferred over any facial hair. Unless you are Christian Bale ofcourse. Here’s another question I want someone to research and answer, can Pretty Privilege overcome Racism?

Just get a paracetamol

Unlike India, Netherlands is a more equal society. Everyone has health insurance and access to a doctor.

Although the Netherlands have almost 5 times more doctors per 10,000 people compared to India, getting a doctor’s appointment is really hard. Since there are more people seeking medical care, health care in Netherlands is rate limited. The first rate limit is the time, even a soonest appointment with your GP is 2 weeks out. The second rate limit is the GP itself. Who will look at you and then determine if your condition is serious enough to warrant any additional care. Most people just get prescribed paracetamol. There are several memes on this already.

Also even emergency care has tiers. You contact huisartsenpost if you are not sure on how serious your emergency is. You contact 112 if you know you are certain that your life is in danger.

I think this system works well except when it comes to preventive care. In India, I could just go to a clinic and within 24 hours, get some tests done based on a feeling. The only rate limiter in India is money and access to a good hospital. Those rate limiters are however magnitudes of times more harsh than Netherland’s.

0s and 1s

Lastly since I’m a software engineer I also spent some hours comparing the tech ecosystem of the Netherlands and India.

In India, e-commerce, food delivery, fintech, social and entertainment apps are usually the most downloaded. The Netherlands does not seem to have high demand for food delivery or fintech apps when compared to India but then again India started scaling their financial systems in the age of smartphones, build an excellent UPI app ecosystem and the labor costs are extremely low.

India is about as diverse as the whole European Union and many exciting apps and innovations are happening in India. However, the Netherlands also has a rising tech ecosystem. I do think Bangalore has more of a hustle culture and entrepreneurship vibe than Amsterdam but the Netherlands is home to tech companies like ASML.

Conclude it already

Phew this was a long post and I did not even touch upon the cultural shock and feeling of belongingness. Maybe in some other post. For now, I’ve learnt quite a bit and only recently I’ve started to become really comfortable in the country. Since I am not European, I do from time to time think about how I am being perceived by others. I’m not sure what the feeling will evolve into but the adventure is just getting started.