I recently went to Haveri, a local town, to meet with an NGO called Samraksha (perhaps I will get a chance to tell you more about the organization later). The plan when I arrived was to call the Director and have her send a car to pick me up. As life in India often goes, my phone or the network or something wasn't working, and immediately a man approached me, unable to hide his enthusiasm for meeting a foreigner.
He was kind enough to let me use his mobile phone and waited with me for fifteen minutes, talking my ear off about how he's a reporter with the Indian Express, that since he has an MBA he should be able to go to the US or the UK, and asking me which one was better. Finally the car arrived and when he shook my hand goodbye, he decided it would be a good idea to lean in to kiss me on both cheeks.
Now to most westerners a kiss on both cheeks is a fine way of greeting someone you know, but in India (much less small town Haveri) it is ENTIRELY INAPPROPRIATE. I could see the wide eyes and gaping mouths. Married couples don't even hold hands, so you can imagine how taboo kissing (even only on the cheek) in public is. It was so inappropriate and so shocking to me that all I could do was laugh.
I hopped into the car, happy to be done with him, when in the middle of the meeting he called the woman I was meeting with just to make sure I arrived safely. All I could do was shake my head and apologize profusely. She thinks he was either unbelievably cautious or looking for a newspaper story, but I appreciated her graciousness and understanding. She actually thought it was nice of him to check in on me!
I still have no clue what that man was thinking, but all in all, it was a hugely entertaining experience.
1 comment:
very cool.
Post a Comment