India is well-known for being a place vastly different in culture than North America. Women not being allowed to show their legs and bare shoulders, and people using only the right hand to eat, touch, and hand items to others (which I often forget to do, being left-handed) are only some of the examples. Here are 10 things that may provide just a teeny snapshot of what it looks/feels like to be in a little corner of India.
10. In my last blog I already mentioned the autos. They are everywhere, and serve as a taxi service. Some will have loud music pumping as they drive. Others have little tassels, random pictures, and coloured lights in the interior. There are no traffic lights or lines of traffic, so driving through an intersection is like a car version of the kids' game "suicide run". (But don't worry! It's quite safe, the drivers here have mad skills).
9. Trash! Garbage is piled up by the side of the road; there is no formal trash removal system here. The smells of the road often alternate quickly between the tantalizing aromas of the spices and flower stands, and the putrid smells of waste.
8. Speaking of streetside stands, Team Sozo loves getting fried rice, noodles, and "hush puppies" from the stands near our home! Just don't make it spicy for Stephanie, please!
7. The "sacred" cow, or water buffalo. They literally roam the streets, eating off trash piles. They only have water buffalo milk here, which has a distinct taste to it and is thicker and healthier, according to online sources. It's what makes their chai tea here taste sooo good.
6. It is perfectly acceptable for men to wear skirts, at least in our part of India. Of course, these are not skirts, but traditional Indian clothing, but one of my squadmates was inspired to wear one (to "fit into the culture", he says) and he's had no end of comments on it ever since.
5. The women here all wear saris or punjabis, so it's easy to see why we are so easy to spot as foreigners, in addition to (most of the team's) lighter hair and skin. Beautiful fabrics of all kinds of colours, patterns, and sequins hang in streetside shops. And yes, the ayahs at SCH had fun dressing Team Sozo up in saris one day.
4. It is perfectly appropriate to stare. Why not, if there's something of interest going on? As three of our teams arrived in the bus station, we drew a crowd where Indian men were standing in a dense circle not more than a metre away from us, just staring. This would happen everytime we went outside. Even when we walk on the streets, little children will always shout, "Hi! Hi! Hi! Bye!"
3. The noise! Incessant honking, which they do because many cars/trucks do not have mirrors. It is not a rude but an expected thing. The horns often sound like those on kids' bikes though – loud and squeaky. There are also many processions and loudspeaker announcements throughout the day in the Telagu language that we have no idea what are about.
2. The water is treated here, but to be safe we drink filtered water from a large five-gallon jug we buy called a "water bubble". Yours truly had to carry one of these up four flights of stairs once :). We also do bucket/leaky faucet showers and bucket laundry. Yay!!
1. And last but not least, the Indian accent and the head bobble. Most Indians know a bit of English, but (especially when speaking to taxi drivers and streetside shop owners) they still won't know what you're saying…unless you say it with an Indian accent :). Most of this consists of really rolling your "r"s. Also, instead of doing nods, Indians do a side-to-side head bobble, which could mean "yes" or "thank you". A twisting of the hands (similar to our sign for "kind-of") signifies "no".
Bonus: Just because I can't resist, here's a picture of the "family auto"…:) gotta love it!
