Small little details

Again I must first of all refer to the fact that I don't mean to convey any sort of prejudice in these facts, but simply to make a note of my observations in a totally random order and with completely arbitrary choice of words.

I am FOR Cultural Diversity. That's one of my biggest passions in life. That's what I'm here for. So... :

Did you know that here in India they...

• have uneven stones (moving ones, sometimes) building most of the sidewalks?
• have all sorts of litter all over many sidewalks, roads and water flows?
• have a tremendous amount of traffic polution, that makes me wear a scarf in my mouth and nose while travelling (even policemen wear it sometimes!)?
• (those who are Hindus) have many gods they pray to (each person or family having their favourite) but consider them all as being different manifestations of the same God (God as in supreme Being, father to all existence)?
• put flowers in women and children hairs and tikas (little variously shaped dots) in their forehead on a daily basis?
• (being men) many times won't even speak to women ('cause they're women)?
• have lower water tap, a bucket and a little cup in every bathroom (often instead of toilet paper)?
• have a film production industry [Bollywood] that is bigger than Hollywood?
• tend to have 5, 10, even 15 times more staff for any task than western countries do as there is overpopulation and salaries are very low?
• have someone outside stores and supermarkets keeping your bags and back-packs as you're going in, someone as cashier, someone putting your groceries in bags, then sometimes another counter to pay and then you have to have your bill stamped by a guard on your way out - how practicall is this (remember in the two last parts you're already having heavy bags all over your hands)? and this is when you, having ordered a juice or anything else two meters far, don't have to bring yourself the ticket showing your order to the hands of another employee, who will then give it to the one who's actually making the juice for you. Ah, and don't forget it!, specially if you're a woman, you'll most likely have to come back yourself and meet your drink in the counter where it was being prepared instead of having it being brought to you
• call "hands" to the whole arms?
• may ask you for more than 4 times the value of something just trying their best change to cheat you and make profit?
• have the best technological intelligence, the best Management and Computer Science universities in the world, the best software and 3rd generation technology being developed, the best adaptation to different language accents - this being also why so many crucial international company services are being outsourced in India?
• prefer having boy childs than girls (namely because girls imply that you'll have to get them maried, and as parents you'll be obliged to giving a big financial sum to the broom added many times to offering house, car, etc) - "prefer" being a very light word in many cases?
• usually have even the strongest of women, the most accomplished ones, 'bending' to the word, presence and authority of their husbands?
• have to be maried by 25 y.o. (being a girl), or otherwise you'll most likely be considered to be disgracing yourself and your life?
• from upper-middle class up, specially educated people: even among themselves tend to mix their local language or hindi with many occurences of english expressions? and some simply speak english 90% of the time, and always in official ocasions, like events and meeetings?
• seem to have the most varied cuisine in the world and find the most incredible and delicious ways of presenting and working over vegetables?
• are in their biggest majority vegetarians?
• are not supposed to eat cow as this animal is thought of as being god? (have you ever heard the expression "holy cow!"? currently it stands for the same as "holy mother of jesus" - even for american adopters already :) )
• have a significant cristian community, who for the past week has been wearing a bright pinkish orangy colour in all of their clothing (men to women, children to seniors) as last week it was Saint Mary's day?
• don't use that much of "please", "thank you" or "sorry" and even find it weird when we make too much use of it?
• in many cases have to be insisted with many times in order to get things done?
• have a hard time saying they "don't know" so you have a problem with knowing if they really understood you, or if they are in the same wave length as you; or if in fact they're just saying something for the sake of answering your question, even if they're indicating you the exact opposite direction to the one you needed?
• (specially when they are service providers) are usually too optimism (or should I say deceiving?) when it comes to TIME(ings), which makes them say "in 2 minutes" or "in 5 minutes" too often? - Me and friends immediately say or think: "yeah, 5 INDIAN minutes!". While they do this, they often perform this particular circling movement with a closed wrist and fingers in a pinacle - that corresponds to the " 'more-or-less'-also-non-assertive-same-type-of-feeling" as in their NODDING of the head... Read about it below:
• have an assertivity problem in many cases which may be highly related to this nodding of the head that is supposed to mean "yes" but is too similar to "maybe" or even "no"? - I ACTUALLY CAUGHT THIS FEATURE and I'm being mocked by friends all the time for this :D
• (the auto-drivers) often don't even answer to you when you say where you wanna go - they just drive away (if they even stopped the vehicle to talk to you, that's for a start) if they're not interested in taking you there? they also often have their meters truncated so that they go faster than the actual distance you're covering? they charge (officially) one and a half meter after 9.30 pm? often don't have their license updated and still they're driving on the roads?
• know they can bribe their way out of a traffic police fine?
• have various items of food being cooked and sold on the street, among traffic smokes and all sorts of city smells and passer-bys? and that this food is many times very good and even deserves an american tv show totally dedicated to Indian Street Cuisine? and that the the same (street exhibition) goes for vegetables, whose sale is announced in characterisitically nosy-sounding moving screams as they are transported in bikes supporting a platform?

To be continued as I experience it. ***