CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

For this article, I thought it would be relevant to tell you about my cultural experience in India.

When I say cultural experience I mean the different kind of «cultural shocks » I had to face while staying in Delhi.

Indian culture is nothing like French culture and if you want to survive, you definitely have to adapt. I always say that being in an indian city is like being on a wave. You have to surf with it or it will literally crush you.

In order to prepare you, or at least to make you aware of what you can expect from Delhi, here are my stories/recommandations.

1st story : the organized chaos

Its simple, if you experience being in a car in Delhi trafic, you simply think that you will die in that journey. The rule for driving a car = no rule.

Either you show that you are the biggest horner and people will let you go through the trafic because they will get tired of you horning like a mad person or you just try to go with the flow without getting hit by the cars around you.

So don’t worry, take a big breath, and tell yourself nothing will happen in that big car you are into in the Delhi Streets. Indians drivers are used to chaos!

2^nd story : no access to toilets

a big amount of indian population don’t have access to toilet and that fact creates some weird situations as people making poo on the street. Yeah, you read well : POO !!! My god, one month after my arrival in India, I was nicely walking on the street and then, this child came out of nowhere in front of me, took down his pant and started to poo. Mmmmmh WELCOME TO INDIA !!

So, as a tourist or even a new inhabitant of any city in India, you should get prepared to see and experience such cultural surprises. Those people aren’t freaks, they just don’t have access to toilet and this represents one of the biggest problem of the country.

3rd story : the manners

If you want to adapt to India, forget everything you know about manners.

Let me explain : saying good morning, thank you, please, etc, is not relevant at all over there. People just think it is not useful so they won’t take time to be polite as we know it.

Don’t get me wrong, if you go to a nice restaurant or shop people will take care of you and try to make you fell good but in the daily life there is a tendancy for people not to be polite in the way we know.

So don’t think people are rude just because they didn’t say thank you when you held the door for them or they didn’t say good bye to you or whatever. Its just something people don’t do here. I was pretty upset by people’s manners when I first arrived in India because I expected people to be and act like in France but now I got used to it and I don’t pay attention any more.

4th story : the starring

As crazy as it can sounds, Indians are obsessed with white skin. Its a sign of beauty over here (well if it would be the same in France, I would have been a beauty queen ! I am real mozzarella myself) so if you are blond with blue eyes, let me tell you that you will feel that you are the main attraction in India. People will stare at you and even ask to take pictures of you. So don’t be afraid but know that being white will attract a lot of attention here.

5th story : money baby

In terms of cost of life, things are cheaper here. You can go to very nice indian restaurant and pay 5 euros for your meal ! Amazing !

For a foreigner, staying in India for vacation is really cool because it is so cheap. The problem when you actually live here and have to pay for daily products (milk, fruits, etc) is : « how to pay the good price for goods where prices are not fixed ? »

Some shop owners in Delhi have a tendancy to try to cheat customers. As long as you don’t look like an Indian, people will try to increase the price and make you pay more than you should normally do.

This is true for the rickshaws for exemple. I have to negociate each and every single days the fare of my trips with the rickshaws drivers and sometimes it can get anoying especially when you know the fare and the driver asks you to pay three times this price. This is a characteric of Delhi but in Bombay for example, drivers put directly the meter as soon as you enter their vehicle.

Also, I had this habit of buying coconuts for their juices. I was in the line and i noticed to price was different for me and for other people. So Indian natives had to pay 30 INR (50 cents)and I had to pay 40 INR. The difference is really small but day after day it starts to count.

So, each time you buy a product in a market, always negociate the price because you can be sure people will give the biggest amount they can give you.