Facts and Myths of India

**Disclaimer: I’m supplying this entry as an attempt to illustrate some of the norms of everyday India. In journal writings, the main goal is to capture events, people and impressions of the day, and often times, I don’t include some of the novel things that make everyday India, Everyday India. Here it goes.**

Don’t drink the water: FACT

Westerners should not drink the water or use it to wash anything intended to enter the intestine due to E coli and other nasty bacteria; however, bottled water is easy to find and inexpensive ($ 0.50 USD) or often times filtered water is also available. For all of you environmentalists please know that I use my BPA-free Nalgene and filtered water.


Toilets: FACT

Everything that you have heard about the toilets in developing countries is true. It is just a hole in the ground with a bucket of water. Yes, the left hand is used. Yes, there is no toilet paper. No, they do not smell badly. No, this is not gross, but rater it is in fact environmentally friendly as to cut down on paper pollution. It may take a little getting used too; however, be assured that EVERYONE washes their hands viciously after urinating or defecating. Plus, your rear is not coming into contact with anything someone else’s has.

Another thing to note is that the toilet and the bathroom are almost always separate, and showers do not exist. Water is too precious of a resource, so only bucket-baths are permitted. From a Westerner’s background, this takes some creativity to complete.

Right Hand Rule: FACT

This rule does not only apply to mathematics, physics and mechanics. It is probably even more important in India. The left hand is used in the toilet. The right hand is used for everything else. Whether it be eating, thumbing through a book or handing someone a pencil, it is done always with the right hand. Further more, hand holding within same-gender couples is common. Women hold hands with women and men hold hands with men in public. It is simply a sign of friendship.

Holy Cow: FACT

Yes, there is the holy cow. These creatures are found in abundance everywhere. The most amazing sight consists of cows in the busy streets. They wander at a leisurely pace while chaotic traffic shuffles and zooms by. In India, killing a cow is equal to murdering a human being. There is a humped-back, short and stocky Indian cow that is a sort of spectacle and is a hardy breed, being able to survive droughts and hardship. There are also familiar dairy cows wander the streets that eat garbage all the live long day. One may laugh, but while humans die every minute on the busy city streets, there are special sanctuaries for cows to die comfortably.

Also worth a further explanation is this so called ‘chaotic traffic’. In India, as most countries in the eastern hemisphere, people drive on the opposite side of the road compared to the USA standard. Also the traffic is not uniform or organized as it is in America, and traffic laws are more like loose guidelines. For example often vehicles come charging down the wrong side of the street into oncoming traffic, there are no boundaries for lanes –motorcycles, bikes, auto rickshaws, taxies, horse and wagon, SUVs, cars, livestock, and pedestrians--all merge and pack tightly together with no concept of a space buffer or organized aisles, and if traffic lights exist they are never actually minded. Sounding of the horn is also never ceasing. Honking is simply used to let the world know that the driver is coming your way. Even under these circumstances, I have yet to see a wreck or someone hit. It is truly remarkable. Indians are far better drivers then westerners by far.

Bare Feet and Sandals: FACT

Every man, woman, and child, whether they be rich, poor, young, old, healthy or sick, wear sandals or go barefoot. It is actually pretty remarkable to witness. Even the very rich have calloused, cracked and worn feet shoved into equally mangled and filthy sandals. There is no such thing as a tender-footed India, EXCEPT police officers. They are the one and only exception and wear heavy black leather boots.

Also meetings and office work is often conducted outside while sitting on a straw rug on the ground at shin-high tables, also shoe-less.

Offerings of Chai Tea: FACT

Everywhere one goes in India, tea will be offered. It will be sweet and hot. By routine, chai is served in the morning with breakfast and several times throughout the day in little ¼ cups. Mostly it is served with milk (powdered—liquid/fresh form is unsafe to consume), but chai can be requested to be served ‘black’, which simple omits your milk. I personally am a huge fan of chai and look forward to it throughout the day. Also everyone makes chai differently, so it’s a sort of surprise with each cup.

No Eating Utensils

Most American Indian restaurants won’t do this to you, but in Southern India, all meals are eaten only with the right hand and NO utensils. Each meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner) consists of rice and a spicy sauce of some sort or another. These are blended using the first two segments of fingers and then shoveled into the mouth. It is a process with skill and technique that takes a bit of practice to not be messy or sloppy.

Slum Dwellers are Miserable: MYTH

It is true that the slums are crowded, poor settlements, but the people in these places are bight, colorful and full of laughter, community and love. In truth, if you see these individuals walking past on the street, it is impossible to determine that they are from the slums. They have dignity and maintain the average standard of hygiene that is present amongst the majority of Indians. More so, because of new public toilets that have been installed in recent years, the ‘human-filth’ is non-existent. The only trash present is collected seemingly hourly by sweeping of the narrow alleys and then depositing it outside the living areas like a very close landfill.

Filth: MYTH/FACT

Indians do have different ideas of what is considered proper cleanliness. Harsh disinfectant chemicals are never used. Feet are considered impure already, so the need to keep them clean is nil. All floor cleaning consists of sweeping, and clothes washing is done only when it is really needed. Plain dirt isn’t considered much of an issue.

The filth is in the streets and outside of living areas. Because there is no organized trash collection, the garbage is just dumped.

It took me a long time to figure out what the horrible rotting stench was here in Bangalore (there was no such smell in Bombay). It turns out that beneath the thin slabs of concrete that make up the uneven, fractured sidewalk, there is a gutter intended for storm runoff from monsoon rains. This hollow space is packed full of plastic bags, bottles, cloth, food scraps and an array of other decomposing debris. The trash ever present in the streets is eaten by dogs and cows, so its ability to smell is limited. When it gets trapped underground, the odor is overwhelming.

I AM BEGINNING TO LOVE INDIA :)