Observations of India
The people are extremely proud of their food and want you to try it. AND they feed you all the time! I have not been hungry since I arrived in India!! The food is also very good. Usually by this time in my travels I am craving pizza hardcore, but that has not happened yet.
I have been experiencing the best hospitality of my life! (Look at the pictures!) When you thank them for their hospitality and say we have never been treated like that before they smile and say “We are famous for our hospitality you know!”
Also because of their hospitality they will sometimes let you get away with ridiculous things and they sweep it under the rug rather than point out you are being rude or doing something unusual by their social standards. For instance, I was eating at a restaurant with my cohort and I asked one of our hosts to help me order. She asked if I wanted vegetarian or not. I said vegetarian, then she asked if I wanted rice or naan (bread). Since I had been eating a lot of naan I said rice. I could tell by her face this was the wrong answer, but I had no idea why and she thought about it for awhile and then told me to get some dish she assured me it was very Indian. When the waiter came to order I ordered and he goes with rice?!?!!? And then the woman said something in Hindi to him. You could tell he was like.. yeah I dont’ know about this… but the dish came out with rice as I ordered. Later I commented to her after the meal that you dont usually eat that with rice do you, she laughed and said “no, but little kids will eat it with rice and it really is a very Indian dish. Very popular with little kids.” So basically I ate the Indian version of Mac and cheese for kids. Haha BUT morale of the story, pleasing the host’s request is generally considered more important than doing it the proper Indian way.
I’ve also been reminded several times that Indians are the largest democracy in the world. They are very proud of this and will remind you of it, if it happens to flow with the conversation.
I have also been reminded that Indians are some of the largest consumers in the world. There’s a lot of ads for Stranger Things 3 here so I asked if that was a popular show, and they said “oh yes!” I said I was surprised because I didn’t know they watched that, and I was reminded that way more Indians watch it than Americans because their population is so large.
Peace is also a very important value to many of the people I have talked to and shows up in lots of different conversations. I asked a woman if divorce happens frequently here. She said no, it is not good for the peace.
I have a hard time telling the difference between the types of flat breads here. To me everything looks like “naan” which is kind of like a pita bread but not. But I have made the mistake several times where I have asked them to pass the naan and they say, no this is not naan this is roti! Or No this is not naan this is… “fill in the blank with a word I dont recognize”. To me they all look the same… but I think I’m starting to understand?
Lots of things are “auspicious.” I have asked a lot of questions about why do people do xyz, trying to understand the reason behind it and I am often told “it is considered auspicious.” What I’m learning is there are a lot of things that are considered “auspicious” but it hasn’t been explained to me why it is this way - which I’m also totally fine with. The fact that it is auspicious is more important than the reasoning is what I am learning. Here’s some examples of auspicious things:
When visiting the Iskon Krishna Temple in Bangalore lots of people were holding up both hands to a flame and then brushing the tops of their head/neck with their hands
People paint masks and hang them outside their homes to ward off bad spirits
When entering a temple complex you must enter from a certain side to leave the bad energy and then exit a different way so the bad energy does not come back to you
Bells are important for energy and also ward off bad spirits
There are a lot of non-verbal Indian cues that can be confusing for westerners including myself. They often will shake their head “no” in a figure 8 type of way, BUT that does not necessarily mean “no” it could mean “no” but it could also mean “maybe” or “we will see” or “yes.” So you have to kind of pick up on the context and the emotion behind the head shake.
The women I’m working with LOVE it when you wear Indian clothes or the bindi or bangles. They have been joking with us saying we are looking more Indian every day! Karly really likes wearing the bindi (the dot that represents the third eye in Hindu married women). I hadn’t been wearing one because I’m not married, but then they kept asking me “Amanda why are you not wearing the bindi?” So I started and they really seem to love it. One of the teachers said she had never seen a western woman wear one before and that it was nice. (I was worried about cultural appropriation, but they seem to insist it is good so I’m not going to worry about it.)
The women I’m working with love laughing and make jokes all the time. They are much freer with their laughter and are very expressive. Karly and I were wearing our new clothes (a kurta) that were tailored for us. One joked saying “Oh you are all looking so beautiful today -when you going to go to the temple you will make all the priests question their celibacy!”
Also, wearing a scarf all the time in the style they wear them makes me realize how clumsy I am. Wearing a scarf is a mandatory requirement for the teachers at the school I’m at. However, they do not wear scarfs like we do in the west. They drape them differently and mine always falls. I don’t know how they do it! I need more practice. I also hear it takes practice to wear a saree… which I 100% believe based off my scarf experiences.
Indian women LOVE their jewelry! Weddings are filled with gold jewelry. It is one of the first things they notice about you. I tend to not travel with jewelry just because I might lose it. Because jewelry is so popular here, I decided to buy some big hanging earrings - and viola, it is the first thing the woman have been commenting on when they meet me. :)
So Interesting!
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