Indian Culture 101

It has occurred to me over the past weeks that I am so immersed in Indian Culture that I assume that my friends/family in the US know the things I know and have learned about India/Indians. However, this is a very wrong assumption. Although they have seen pictures, they have not experienced the clash of 2 very different cultures. Yes, maybe they know that Indians eat rice all the time, that many women wear sari's, and they don't use toilet paper. But those are general stereotypes, knowledge gained from movies or media articles.

So I've decided to give people a little taste of Indian culture. But please know this: India is just as, if not more, diverse as America and the differences in culture between the south, east, west, hills, city, country, villages, etc are enormous. And I look forward to learning more about these differences myself as I have opportunity to visit different parts of India.

The infamous "squatty potty" - found in most houses. And no, no toilet paper. I'll let you come to your own conclusions. *Hint-they eat with their right hand :)

These jolly little chairs are found in many Indian houses...I think they're mostly in the North, but not really sure. Haven't been in the South much - although I'm going to Bangalore next week!

Masala! (spices)

Most people burn their trash...hence the horrible pollution. Not sure what the cities do. Surely they have some kind of garbage system

Ok, not sure what this stuff is called. But yes, it is a leaf with some mint and other stuff that's "good for digestion" - they wrap it up into a small little package and you just eat it. Kinda weird to straight up eat a leaf.

Example of Indian light switches. The red light is to tell you if the power is on/off...it goes off quite often here, especially during monsoon season. The controller is for the AC, which we don't use very much at all b/c it's so expensive. The round button is for the fan, which we use a lot. The dome thing at the bottom is the mosquito repellant plug-in. VITAL.

Indian bathroom. All Indian households have plenty of buckets...one of which they use for "bucket baths." Get a cup and you're good to go - only uses maybe a few cups per bath. Water Conservation 101. I recommend this method for Nashville's current flooding/water shortage! However, it's difficult to use this method when trying to wash my hair...it's like a sponge and takes a bunch of water to even get wet. So I usually have to use the shower.

Water Heater. Also very important. Turn it on at least 15 minutes before your shower and you're good to go with hot water.

Dish rack and water filter/water bottles. Since we don't drink the water straight out of the tap, we fill these bottles daily for drinking/cooking.

ps - we get excited when we get American treats...like POP ROCKS!!! haha!