Friday, November 12, 2010

This is India #3 -- We, the People

Things I can’t get used to in India

I love most things Indian. In my previous stay there, I had jotted down the following list of things that people in India do, to which I just can’t get used. I really hope some of these things change with time.

1. People playing MP3 songs on their mobile phones without earphones and inflicting loud music on others
2. People buying sweets despite there being dozens of flies on them
3. People throwing all their garbage right outside their own homes or shops
4. People spitting all day long – some silently and incessantly, and others making a noisy production of it
5. People who talk all the time during movies, wisecracking with their friends.
6. People who start walking out minutes before the movie is about to end, opening the doors and ruining the suspension of disbelief for the rest of us
7. Parents not shushing their kids (or taking their kids outside the auditorium) when live performances are in progress, even though they know that their child is being really disruptive.
8. People standing patiently in long lines to use an ATM
9. People in cars who pull up in front of an apartment building and honk loudly to signal their arrival to one person, unmindful of the dozens of other residents that they are disturbing
10. People who saunter along on the railway tracks, as if there is no other place available to walk. And especially people who scurry and cross the track right in front of an oncoming train, and clamber onto the platform seconds before the train comes rushing in.
11. People on power trips, who want to be administrative bottlenecks and delay things, just so that they can flex their muscles and show everyone “who’s boss.”

Related Posts:
This is India #2 - Contrasts
This is India #1

3 comments:

  1. I don't mean to offend you, because you have taken a lot of effort.

    But none of those are specifically India-only, except maybe number 10.
    I am also sorry if you have been living in developed countries only.

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  2. Hey Kang,

    Thanks for your comment. No offense taken.

    I have spent half my life in India and go back regularly.

    I don't mean to imply that they occur nowhere else, just that they do happen in India. (In fact even #10, walking along tracks, happens in several other countries.)

    I listed these as a few things which if they change, will make India better.

    Ram

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  3. Hello Prasad
    Re.#4 (spitting) Chewing tobacco became popular in USA in the 19th century, when men would gather together to watch each other spew dark brown juice into spittoons. Spitting was so prevalent that Oscar Wilde on his first visit to the United States in 1882 wrote “America is one long expectoration” So there is hope for India.
    Parthasarathy

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