On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 7:51 AM, Deepa Mohan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 5:10 PM, ss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Having >> shot my mouth off = perhaps some of the others on silf who came to india >> for >> the first time to stay may be able to give you a better idea. >> >> shiv > > > Shiv! what a great description that is. I yam yimpressed! :) except for > calling this list silf...you mean, we are all slender and silf-like, or we > are silfish?
SILF = <something> I'd like to ... nevermind. I think Shiv's description was accurate as far as it went, but he left out a few of my biggest surprises. First, I'm used to *walking* around cities. People in my social stratum don't seem to do that. On the other hand it was an interesting way to see people - and be seen. You will be stared at, everywhere you go in public. Incessantly and unashamedly - small children may run from you screaming in terror. It's also more difficult to walk. Sidewalks are for the most part nonexistent, and where they do exist they are often impassible due to carts and parked two wheelers. Second, notions of personal space are quite different, and queuing is honored more often in the breach. When waiting for a lift, for example, you would be well advised to get used to being surrounded elbow to elbow with everyone else wanting the lift, and when it arrives, do not politely wait your turn - you will miss the lift. Third, there are a lot of things I expected to find in a "large" (I was in Bangalore - 7 million people) "modern" (Bangalore is the "IT Capital" of India and a "first tier" city) city that were simply non-existent. I'm used to being able to find "fine dining" pretty much wherever I go. There really isn't any in Bangalore to my disappointment. Finally, I was surprised to find social attitudes to be much more conservative in many ways - though I'm not sure what I expected. As an old school '70s style US feminist, I was shocked to see how many intelligent well educated women with advanced degrees were staying home and running households and seemed to treat this as natural. If I were a '00s style post-modern feminist (or a post-feminist modernist), I would re-examine my attitudes about the aspirational nature of a career versus a job and my judgemental attitudes about the value of traditional "women's work" - but I'm not, and I don't think their husbands are either... -- Charles
