While some of things on this list can actually be something of a good, positive experience depending of time of day and part of the year, making it one of the nicer elements of the “incredible india”, others are mostly aspects in everyday life one could live without:
- Stuffed animals and pillows behind the rear windshield of cars! Why do they have it? What purpose does it serve? Doesn’t it block the rear view? It’s just crazy.
- Doctors discuss your case very publicly, sometimes. They might bump into you here and there and start asking about your BP. They might bring your chart in common areas of the hospital and discuss things there! They might have no issues talking about your health to your parents and disclosing them details you’d rather have it private! No sense of and respect for something called the ‘doctor-patient confidentiality’.
- Urinating in public: Very common menace all across the country. The men have absolutely no self-restraint! Zip down; Whip out; Assault of the stinky golden shower!
- Public display of religious devotion: Driving along in decent traffic, suddenly the person ahead breaks; slows down; pays his homage and obeisance to the temple/god/statue just around in the visual field of view! Few minutes later he’s seen cursing and cussing about haphazardly in the traffic! Same with pedestrians too. Then there are those that will touch the stray holy cow moving along the shared traffic pathway in immense reverence.
- Spitting projectiles all about: From buses; cars; two-wheelers; three-wheelers; mostly men, few women; all spitting about for no real reason but just because they can and they will!
- Loud devotional callings: From temple and mosques at odd hours of the day. I don’t think they believe their gods to be deaf or anything so why the loud speakers? And, why such high volumes? Why those odd hours of the day? Will god not hear the silent prayers whispered in the confines of the region between the ears!?
- Crazy things interrupting traffic: Lazy cow moving across the road; political procession with police security; religious procession with noisy drum beats and chants; procession of the dead with fireworks!
- Strangers on your dinner table at restaurants: You are having a good moment with your guest/friend/family member at the table in a decent restaurant when suddenly a stranger joins in. He doesn’t care to ask if it’s alright. He doesn’t bother checking if the table is occupied. He just sits down, orders for his meal, and carries on nonchalantly like nothing’s happened! All in day’s work.
- Personal questions in public places by strange people on things confidential: About your marital status; about your job; the salary; the perks; about your spouse; about your investments;
- Mobbing/Ganging up against “Outsiders”: You’ll see and hear about it a lot. You might experience it as well. In any little scuffle or road-mishap etc., no matter who is at fault, a local crowd will gather and gang up against the “outsider.” They will get physically violent! A north-indian in south india; a south-indian in north india; a east-indian in pretty much any another other part of the country; they will be treated as “outsiders” and danger to the “local way of life!” Best and safest way to deal with it is to not deal in it at all. No matter who’s at fault, just apologize and move ahead.
- Cutting the line: Expect this to happen all the time. From men, women, kids, older-men, older-women, they will all try to cut the line. They will play the gender-card; the age-card; the pious-card; the holy-man-card; the hungry-kid-card; and whole bunch of other cards to get some crowd support in their favor for breaking a social protocol of questioning their cutting the line!
- Falling Human Waster from Over-Head Trains: That’s a bit of a doozy. The otherwise ever-in-haste two-wheelers will pull up and wait for the over-head running train to pass for the fear of getting human waster on them. They think the probability of dying of rash driving on mad Indian roads is much lesser than getting human waster on them from running trains!
- Loud Music in Public Places on the (Smart) Phone Speakers: Crappy, outdated music blaring from the cheap speakers of cheaper phones being played by the cheapest of people! We are subjected to this torture in public transportation, restaurants, and other public places. Why they don’t plug in a simple earphone is beyond human comprehension!