Living in India so far has been
chaotic, charming, stressful, disappointing, surprisingly clean, colorful and
most of all – most hospitable.
In the western world we hear a
lot about poverty in India and bad sanitation standards. This is mostly true
for live on the streets: Most street stand owners do not have a way to wash
their hands, even when they serve food, garbage is thrown on the floor, and
stray cows and dogs do not only leave their feces but also help to spread
diseases.
Unfortunately, garbage piles like
this are a common sight in the streets of Bangalore. The situation inside
people’s houses is quite the contrary.
Inside people’s homes, however,
the situation is completely different. Most Indian women care very well for
their houses, they clean, sweep, mop and scrub every day, in most homes that I
have been to I could not find a single grain of dust. If they can afford it
Indian families hire a maid to help around the house, which is considered a
positive thing, as giving back to the community by paying someone to do work they
could have done on their own.
Once you enter people’s homes,
Indians have been very hospitable to Lex and me. We get offered really good,
homemade food and fresh water. People treat us very politely, they are
interested in our stories and eager to explain anything about Indian culture
that we ask about.
Back out on the streets the world
seems to be completely different – most people are nice but you have to be
careful about trusting strangers. Every time we ask for driving directions we
ask at least two people because some people either willfully give you wrong
directions or they don’t want to admit that they don’t know the way, in which
case they just point you a random direction, which might or might not happen to
be the correct way.
I am looking forward to meeting
more Indians and making more Indian friends. Their hospitality is pretty
amazing, and I just love to see how much they appreciate small presents like
the little lavender pillows and chocolates we brought.
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