I made a list of all the cultural things that I’ve noticed so far in India (I’m in the southernish area of Hyderabad/Ongole:
0. Intro
1. Gender Roles
2. Clothing
3.The Bobblehead
4. Food
5. Language
6. Religion
7. Greeting
8. Weather
9. Not Knocking Before Entering
10. Music
11. The Cow
12. Currency
13. Henna Tattoos
14. Power Outages
0. Intro: India has quite an interesting culture! It’s really cool. It’s definitely one of the most unique out of all the countries we’ve gone to so far. When walking down the street you see pockets of men gathered, couples of women wearing colorful traditional clothing, busy tuk-tuks (taxis) scurrying around, people going by on motorcycles dodging the cows walking on the street, a herd of water buffalo walking on the street (I always wonder where they’re always going to), cars with the driver’s wheel on the right side, and people on bicycles. The traffic is crazy with all those things going everywhere on the street. You pass by modest huts and then go by really nice and modern structured buildings. There’s a lot of construction and it’s really developing. You can see really poor and rural people and buildings as well as seemingly rich and modern people and buildings right next to each other. The kids all stare and smile and say “Hi! What is your name?” The little girls here are some of the most beautiful ones that I’ve seen in all the countries that we’ve been to. You see some women doing laundry in a river and some scattered street venders. You can see chickens and pigs walking around. There’s a lot of garbage especially in areas with no buildings. I think this country might have the most garbage that I’ve seen out of the countries we’ve been to. It’s not as chaotic as I thought it’d be though and can be rather peaceful in the busyness. I usually don’t smell anything except sometimes it can smell the bad smell of stagnant water. There seems to always be singing or chanting going on especially in the morning- I think it’s probably religious. It’s also common to hear wedding parades.
City of Ongole, India
1. Gender Roles: They do arranged marriages in India. I was talking to a woman here and she said that girls start getting married as young as 13. She told me that she was now 34 and that she has grandchildren because she got married at the age of 15, and she married off her daughter at 14. Another woman I talked to that works here is named Soonita (I think her name is so pretty!). She is so nice, and she’s 22 and studied nursing. She told me that she’s getting married next year and that her parents are still finding the man. I think it’s funny that she knows that she’ll be getting married next year, but doesn’t know to who yet. We were told that we shouldn’t make eye contact or smile at the men even just to say hello because it’s a sign of flirting. I guess it’s not really desired when there are arranged marriages. I realized that it’s pretty hard for me to not make eye contact and smile because I feel that’s a big part of American culture and my personality. I feel like I’m being really unfriendly if I don’t. I feel like I’ve maybe given a couple Indian men the wrong idea unintentionally ha. We were also told that men and women don’t hug or show physical affection in public. We were told that they only do that with the same sex. It’s common to see men holding hands with other men that are just friends. I like seeing that because I think it’s funny because American men never do that. One thing that I’ve noticed is that there seems to be a lot more men than women outside, and I don’t know if there’s just more men than women in India or if the women all stay home or what.
2. Clothing:
Women: The clothing here is really modest in American standards. The ankles need to be covered up, so women have to wear floor-length skirts or pants. And the pants shouldn’t be too tight. And if you wear pants, you need to wear a top that’s long enough to cover your butt and front. The shoulders also need to be covered up. The women here all wear punjabis or saris. Punjabis are cotton or silk tops that are long that you wear with matching cotton or silk bottoms. They also come with a matching cotton or silk scarf to put over your neck/chest area. You don’t have to wear the scarf, but it’s more modest. Saris are long fabric things that make a skirt and then wrap around the top. The funny thing is, is that the stomach is fine to show, and many of the older women have their bellies hanging out and most of them aren’t thin. The fabric for the Punjabis and saris come in tons of different design and usually they are colorful, shiny, and bedazzled. We went to go buy some Punjabis because that’s what everyone wears here, and it really helps for us to have stuff to wear because I actually didn’t bring any pants on the Race (only kapris) and I don’t have any long tops. Punjabis are a little more practical for the work we’re doing here than saris. I bought a ready-made Punjabi top, and I also bought some red fabric and then brought it to a tailor who sewed the Punjabi together. The women braid their hair a lot, and some where bedazzled hair clips. And many women wear gold earrings, anklets, toe rings, and nose rings. A lot of women wear flowers in their hair too. I never see the women wear their hair down in public- it’s usually braided. They also have these bracelets called bangles. An Indian family used to live next to my family when I was little, and I had a friend named Pooja and I remember her always giving me bangles.
Me wearing my new red punjabi
Men: Men wear button-down shirts or t-shirts and pants. They don’t wear shorts. Almost all of them have mustaches. A lot of older men wear these bottoms that look like sheets as a mini skirt or sheets in the form of a loose diaper haha. I’ve also seen some men wearing long, tight fabric that looks like a floor-length skirt. You also see some older men wearing turbans.
3. The bobblehead: One of the funniest things in India is that they move their heads from ear to ear like a bobblehead to say yes, to say ok, to show that they’re listening to a conversation, and to acknowledge you. They don’t move their heads up and down to say yes and all those other things like we do in the States. It’s been fun to move my head from ear to ear to say hi or to show that I’m listening in a conversation. I noticed that when they say no they twist their fists from side to side.
4. Food: There’s a lot of rice and curry in India. They have a lot of different types of fried rice and they use curry with a lot of things. I’ve eaten this thing called paratha which is like a bread thing that you dip in curry. There’s naan and masala. They also have some places here that have chicken burgers, fries, and pizza. They have a place called “OFC” like “KFC”, but “OFC” “Ongole Fried Chicken”. They don’t have any beef because the cow is holy here and they don’t eat it. They also don’t have any milk from the cows, but only soy milk. They also drink a lot of chai tea. We’re offered chai tea every afternoon. They eat with just their hands a lot and only the right hand because the left is supposed to be used for wiping when going to the bathroom
5. Language: In this part of India, they speak a language called Telegu. Many people also speak English. They speak Hindi in other parts of India.
6. Religion: About 80% of the people in India are Hindu, 10% Muslim, and 2% are Christian according to Wikipedia. Hindis believe in tons of gods and they’ve told us that it’s common for Hindis to hear about Jesus and just want to add him to their list of gods. But Jesus commands us to worship him alone.
7. Greeting: When greeting the Christians where we live and in our organization, everyone says “Wondanahloo!” (wrong spelling) which means “Praise the Lord!” and they put their hands and fingers straight together by their chin. On the street, people just say “Hi!” to us. It’s interesting that they say “Hi” because in all the other countries people would always say “Hello” to us and never “Hi”.
8. Weather: We’ve had the perfect weather here right now. It’s hot and sunny, but not too hot and there’s a breeze. I’d say it’s been in the 70s and 80s. It hasn’t rained a lot either. We were told that during the hot months it can get up to 115 degrees- glad I’m not here during those months haha.
9. Not Knocking Before Entering: It’s not rude for people to enter rooms without knocking, so if you don’t want anyone to come in you have to lock the door. They told us that this will happen, and it definitely is interesting. People that work here will just walk right into our apartment without knocking. Both men and women do this. It’s sometimes awkward because a man comes to put water in our kitchen, and he just walks in and sometimes we’re wearing shorts and that’s really immodest here. Whenever we hear a knock at the door, we know that it’s one of the American women that work here haha.
10. Music: I don’t know much about the music except that the Indian music that I’ve heard on the busses and stuff is so cool and fun to dance to. I want to listen to it more.
11. The Cow: The cow needed its own section because it’s really interesting to me that the cows just live among the people. There are just random cows on the streets and random cows just chillin outside of the stores. They are supposedly holy here, so they don’t eat beef or milk from them, but they don’t seem to be well-kept though- many of the cows seem dirty and skinny.
12. Currency: Their currency is the rupee. 60 rupees is about 1 dollar. All of their bills have a picture of Gandhii on them. They don’t seem to like handling change- sometimes they give you a couple little candies if they don’t have a couple rupees to give you for change.
13. Henna Tattoos: It’s popular to get Henna tattoos in India. One night two of the Indian girls gave me a Henna tattoo with some leaves and put henna on my fingertips, palms, and the back of my hand and arm. I also paid someone on the street to do some cool intricate, thin designs on the back of my hand and arm, and it looks really cool. It’s supposed to last like 2-4 weeks.
14. Power Outages: There’s scheduled power outages where we are in India- from 9am-11am and from 3pm-5pm there isn’t any power. There’s some like generator things though for like the refrigerator and stuff, but you can’t use many outlets or WIFI.
Congratulations on passing Indian Culture 101! Haha. Ok well, I hope that you now feel like you’ve been to India! Haha. I wanted to say that my back has been feeling a lot better. It’s still not at 100%, I’d say about 80-85%, but it’s definitely not causing as much problems as before, so thanks for praying! Also, I wanted to mention in Vietnam that one of my flip flops had broken and the pastor there that we lived with fixed my shoe for me! It was so nice because he didn’t speak any English and he just saw my shoe and fixed it for me. He didn’t tell me, and I just found it later. It was so sweet. I thought that maybe we could go to the Taj Majal while in India, but it’s like a 2 day drive or something, so we probably won’t be going. OK those are my random thoughts that don’t connect, and now I don’t have a really good way to end this blog, so oh well you win some and you lose some hahaha! The End.
