After a recent international trip I was looking for aspects about Indians that people across the world "like" but ironically found a post exactly the other way round, refer the post:
http://www.fullstopindia.com/10-annoying-things-about-india-and-indians#comment-86416
I would like to thank Chris Chopp to finally give me a topic to get initiated into blogging. So please read through that article before coming here again.
Here is what was my response to Chris and what I think.
Going by the comments to Chris's article its obvious not all Indians are sporting enough to take a feedback. This can probably be added as one more of the annoying things about us!
I agree with most and being an Indian I would like to give perspective of what the thought process/cultural nuances are at least to some extent for these things - obviously just my interpretation!
Take for instance “Staring” – Indians do stare a lot in fact I never realized this till I went to US. Where no one would make an eye contact and if they did they would say a polite ‘hello’ to acknowledge, which definitely was so much better than blank stares - I myself am guilty of it :). However even in US, I happened to see a celebrity “Daniel Radcliffe” and obviously everyone was attracted and “stared” at him. The point I am making is that when a "White" person is in India you tend to attract a lot of attention and do get stared at more. Need to note that that though culturally diverse India is not a multi-ethnic society like US or UK. So anyone even for that matter Africans or Asians get stared at a lot more primarily because you stand out. So my advise is to see yourself as a celebrity and enjoy the attention.
Not putting this as a justification or defense but a point of view.
Some of the other points that Chris mentioned can be grouped together in a very distinct Indian-ness (may be it exists in other cultures as well) which I call ‘Cheap thrills’. While majority of Indians are polite in their conduct we also have this distinct bragging type culture that co-exists and gets encouraged since no one protests against it, where to be a HERO one has to indulge in ‘Cheap thrills’ like the guys who were troubling Chris, or animals getting mistreated or jumping the queue or writing on the walls of historical or cutting the road while driving (Chris didn’t mention this).
When in the “cheap thrill” mode: the actor suspends the thought of long term consequences of the actions and sensitivity towards fellow beings. All that matter is the ego satisfaction at that very moment with a possible applause from the group as an encouragement – nothing else.
So feel sorry about that and yes it is very annoying. What are other things that can make us look annoying and probably other points to improve on as a nation?
http://www.fullstopindia.com/10-annoying-things-about-india-and-indians#comment-86416
I would like to thank Chris Chopp to finally give me a topic to get initiated into blogging. So please read through that article before coming here again.
Here is what was my response to Chris and what I think.
Going by the comments to Chris's article its obvious not all Indians are sporting enough to take a feedback. This can probably be added as one more of the annoying things about us!
I agree with most and being an Indian I would like to give perspective of what the thought process/cultural nuances are at least to some extent for these things - obviously just my interpretation!
Take for instance “Staring” – Indians do stare a lot in fact I never realized this till I went to US. Where no one would make an eye contact and if they did they would say a polite ‘hello’ to acknowledge, which definitely was so much better than blank stares - I myself am guilty of it :). However even in US, I happened to see a celebrity “Daniel Radcliffe” and obviously everyone was attracted and “stared” at him. The point I am making is that when a "White" person is in India you tend to attract a lot of attention and do get stared at more. Need to note that that though culturally diverse India is not a multi-ethnic society like US or UK. So anyone even for that matter Africans or Asians get stared at a lot more primarily because you stand out. So my advise is to see yourself as a celebrity and enjoy the attention.
Not putting this as a justification or defense but a point of view.
Some of the other points that Chris mentioned can be grouped together in a very distinct Indian-ness (may be it exists in other cultures as well) which I call ‘Cheap thrills’. While majority of Indians are polite in their conduct we also have this distinct bragging type culture that co-exists and gets encouraged since no one protests against it, where to be a HERO one has to indulge in ‘Cheap thrills’ like the guys who were troubling Chris, or animals getting mistreated or jumping the queue or writing on the walls of historical or cutting the road while driving (Chris didn’t mention this).
When in the “cheap thrill” mode: the actor suspends the thought of long term consequences of the actions and sensitivity towards fellow beings. All that matter is the ego satisfaction at that very moment with a possible applause from the group as an encouragement – nothing else.
So feel sorry about that and yes it is very annoying. What are other things that can make us look annoying and probably other points to improve on as a nation?
