Culture in India

I've been back from vacation less than a week and I'm already on a business trip. Yep, someone scheduled it for me while I was out of the office. There are pros and cons to that. Pros are I didn't have to make travel arrangements. Cons are I didn't sleep in my own bed last night. Luckily it's just a short overnight trip and I'll be home tonight.

Last night while at dinner with a coworker, we were talking about my trip to India. He's done some business in Mumbai so he was sharing his thoughts on India. He said the most difficult thing for him was that as an American, he could never figure out what the Indians thought of him, his presentation, the products, etc. We discussed how the culture in India is different.

Here are some of my thoughts.*
• No one wants to tell you no. A couple times, in a restaurant I asked for something and was told yes, I could have it. Then the waiter disappeared...forever. They didn't have the item I requested but culturally wouldn't tell me that. As Americans we simply have a very different perspective on "no."
• No one wants to disappoint you. Of course this is a good thing but the flip side is no one wanted to set our expectations either. I guess the thought process is if you're not expecting anything, you won't be disappointed.
• Things change so much in India, people there are far more laid back than Americans. As an American, I often struggle to relax and just let things happen.
• Non-verbal communication (body language) would take me a really, really long time to adjust to. The most obvious example is Indians shake their head side to side when they are saying yes. That's the opposite of what Americans do. I had read about this difference and thought I was prepared to notice it. That was not the case at all. While in a conversation, it was horribly difficult to pull back and recognize that difference. Instead, I thought I was getting blown off or teased. It reinforced for me how important body language is to my ability to communicate.
• Women aren't equal to men. The inequality between genders is something I expected to see, but still had a hard time adjusting to. I'm such an extreme feminist (by definition I think men and women are equal) that I have a hard time understanding anything that doesn't support my beliefs. For example, in one restaurant, I couldn't figure out why no one was taking our order when everyone else in the group was being served. It finally occurred to us that it was probably due to the fact we didn't have any men at the table. Another example is hotel staff would greet my father but not my mother and I as we were walking with him.

*Disclaimer: None of this is meant to offend anyone. It's simply my thoughts about my experience - my LIMITED experience with a limited number of people.

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