Indian culture is very opposite from american culture in a lot of ways, but in some ways is similar, at least, to our southern culture of hospitality. For instance, any time you go to someone’s house, they will always invite you in, and ask you if you want tea or coffee. There is no point in saying no, because they will persist, so I think it may even be rude to turn them down. Just say yes and accept their blessing, in serving you. They like it! And your tea or coffee will no doubt be served with “biscuits” which are just like plain cookies. It is acceptable and yummy to dip the cookies in the tea. Here in India the tea is usually chai or black tea, both very delicious!
Other common things you might see or experience in India:
Cows roaming the streets (watch out for cow patties!!) And wild dogs everywhere. Don’t pet them…
The roads are usually dirt roads and most people drive motorcycles or scooters. There is also an abundance of tuk tuks, also called rickshaws, or autos. They are the equivalent of taxis. Here is a pic:
With all this traffic, it can get very dusty. It is also not uncommon to see full families of four or five on motorcycles and mopeds. I have even seen four grown men on one motorcycle. There aren’t many traffic rules either, they’re more like traffic suggestions. So Be very cautious when crossing the street!
Its also common to see people peeing on the side of the road, and occasionally you’ll see a person squatting to do the doo….even bathing too!!
Speaking of the sides of the road…they are dirty. There is trash everywhere. They burn some of it at night but for the most part, in the cities, sadly, its a very dirty place.
The water is very bad…the water that comes from the tap, even locals don’t drink, so keep your mouth closed in the shower. Even the filtered water still smells funny..
The water that goes down the drain just runs through a pipe that empties just outside the house. I think its the same for the toilet water because at night, there would be a horrid smell that came through the windows. I’m sorry to be telling you about these things but smelling this scent was a large annoyance of mine. Pee-yoo!!
The electricity also goes off frequently because there is more people than power to go around. Luckily, where we lived we had a back up battery.
There is no air conditioning though, and summers get very hot.
Indian food is delicious. They eat a lot of chicken, curry and rice. My favorite meal was called jipati, a pasty substance with egg and idk what else that you put on tortilla shells. We ate very good here. This goes back to the hospitality thing. But they also have american things too…if you watched my cribs video, you’ll see that. But don’t be deceived…it took us two whole hours just to order the dominoes…nobody knows their address around here lol and language barriers of course.
As for dress code for women, the shoulders and ankles should be covered, but the stomach is okay to show, like when you wear a Saree. However,We found that in the cities, this dress code is more lax. For men, they wear mostly the same things as you do in the States.
Everything is made of cement here, and the houses are neat. Indian people love beauty and color, and this comes out in both their clothes and architecture. I appreciate this, as I love bright colors too.
Well that is a short tour of Indian culture. I have thoroughly enjoyed my stay here, and hope I may come back someday.
This is a cribs video we did on the place we stayed at all month.
