In this part, as I generally do, I will write about my impressions in India, trying to cover as many aspects as possible, from their culture to sports, from music to eating habits.
First of all, there is not ‘an’ Indian culture. There are millions. This is a place of great variety and difference, in language, religion, ideas, ethnicity and much more… And this is what makes this place unique. It is impossible to see everything in this country, while there is something worth to see in every corner.
Unfortunately it seems like Indian people do not value what they have. You can easily find a ‘ Ankur loves Priya ‘ carving, in Taj Mahal, one of the 8 wonders of the world. Or you can easily smell piss in a temple in a holy city.
Since I havenot been everywhere, I ll only write about my general impressions from my experiences. I have been to New Delhi, Bangalore, Mangalore, Kundapura, Goa and Hampi during my stay.
Religion
While the majority of the Indians are Hindu’s, there is also a big Muslim minorty and a small number of Christians. Yet, the Christian effect is big, with many churches around. There were always clashes of religions in India, especially between Hindu’s and Muslim’s, but as time passes, people tend to understand that living together is better than fighting against each other all the time.
Yes, there are millions of Gods in India. But actually this does not mean that there are millions of different Gods in India. It means that there is a God, and it is in millions of different forms. It is in a tigers body, in a cows soul or in a statue of an elephant. It is a piece of paper, it is a tree and it is a temple. God is in many forms and in every part of our lives. This is what they believe.
Music
Who doesnt know about Indian music? Every movie of Bollywood, Tollywood, and other productions always have songs and dances. Mostly about love and pain these songs are, it is an important tool for the leisure of Indian people. Western songs are also very popular nowadays, yet songs of their own culture will always have a place in their hearts. You can even see a car adjusted to playing music, when it goes rear.
Sports
As unpopular it is to most Europeans, cricket and hockey are the most popular games in India, cricket taking the first place. Even though I still do not understand the rules and the point of it ( similar to baseball from what I saw ), Indian people are really fanatic in this sport, and the national team is pretty good.
Sports like basketball, football and more are quite unknown to Indians. Before I came to India, I heard that the reason that India does not take part in the football world cups is that, they demanded their players to play bare foot, which was naturally rejected by FIFA.
Hygiene
Being a country of paradoxes, Indian people are funnily sensitive about hygiene, yet also very careless about their environment and themselves. First of all, you cannot find toilet papers in India, while people use water to wash themselves after their number 2. Also people do not use tissues after sneezing or with a running nose.
In the public places, when water is served on a glass, people do not touch their mouths to the cup, but hold it from a certain distance, pouring it in their mouths. That is because they are afraid of germs and contagious diseases. Mostly they take shower with a bucket full of water and washing machines are hardly existent.
It is very normal to spit on the street for people, hence there are many signs in public places that say ‘ spitting is prohibited ‘.
Indian people tend to eat with right hand and use left hand for drinking and cleaning themselves. You can see curious Indian faces looking at you if you use both hands while eating. Poor left-handed people.
Also forks and knives hardly exist in India, while they eat even the most liquid thing with their hands, something that I couldnt get used to.
Traffic
I shoud write a big ‘ OMG ‘ here, which would summarize the situation of traffic in India, which is exactly the same from its biggest city to the smallest village:
Horrible.
The traffic culture is non-existent in India, while people are really not educated about it. They can drive the car, but things like checking the mirrors etc… are out of the question, which makes the traffic there very dangerous. The solution that the Indians brough to this is to honk each time they approach a car to notify them of their presence. At first I was really annoyed at this continuous honking, but then when my friend told me the ‘ logic ‘ behind it, it was more understandable for me. Still this doesnt justify the noise pollution and the annoyence they cause.
You really should avoid listening to your i-pod or doing anything that would take your attention of your way, because any moment a bus, a motorbike or any other kind of vehicle can run into you. You have to be always vigilant and cautious, while me and my friend was almost ran over by a bus, which decided to steer to the right towards us. I hardly remember how I threw myself on the other side of the road, thinking my friend has been ran over already, and having a big relief when I saw him 20 metres away, breathing his lungs out.
But there are also situations that you can not prevent or escape. When you are in a bus for example, you have nothing to do apart from closing your eyes and playing when the bus tries to overtake every single vehicle and comes back to its line in the last milisecond before they crash with the car coming from the opposite direction. Also with the lack of suspensions in the vehicles, you can jump up to half a meter with the bumps in the bus.
Also, being a country that doesnt value human comfort, it is normal to use every cm2 of the bus, filling it with people. Having no difference from sardines in cans, a long bus trip can be really exhausting, with around 100 people in a 40 people capacity bus and a conductor that sells tickets, squeezing through the crowd.
To be continued…
