Indian in South Africa
Cultural shock
If an Indian, for the first time is going abroad to a western country, some of the differences are very obvious. The number of people a scarce. Verry!
As it was not my first time outside India(I was in UK for 2 years), It was not a big surprise for me. Also since In SA most of the infrastructure like governent offices, universities and hospitals were made by europians,( or I should say British and Europians as British is no more a EU country) the infrastructure is very similar to EU. Big buildings with pointed chimneys at the top and small windows were much similar to CST station of mumbai.
Transportation
In SA people seldomely use public transport. Everyone has a car here. So if you have to stay in SA for even a week, make sure you know how to drive.
You will not see 2 wheelers on the road. Not even a single one. The cars follow strick lane rules. Singals are called robots. In India giving indicator signal alone is not enough if you want to take a left/ right turn. You have to time honking precisly with the indicator lights as well. In SA a honk means you are making the car in front aware that it has done something wrong(it actually means swearing the car in front) since cars here do not break rules that often, you will hardly hear honking.
So driving in SA is much much easier as compare to India if you can control the urge to overtake every car, stop honking insenisbly or to a bappi libari song tune, maintain lanes and offcource stop whe the signal is red.
People:
One thing you will notice is the diversity of people here. There are black, brown/coloured, asians and white. SA has a interesting history of freedom from EU rule and Uprising by Mandella and everything. After freedom both white and black decided to stay togetger with peacefullness and love.
So if you go to a mall or a grocery shop, you will atleast see people from 3 to 4 ethnic groups. People in SA are friendly as compared to british. They are aleays looking to start a conversation with a stranger. If they identify u r a indian, they will start with either IPl or bollywood. If not both they wipp definelty talk abouth the weather today. It is a great skipp we can learn from them. They are very polite and will make sure you are not slightly offended, which indians get very easily.
Indian food
Indian dont like to experiment very much when it comes to food. Even if they have had a burger from MacD, there always space for daal makhni or butter chicken. SAns love indian food. They crave for mexican and indian food since it is spicy. So there are many indian restaurant throughout cape town. They might not serve authentic indian food but it still looks indian and is spicy. Some pakistani restaurant have also named restaurants as Taj and Bombay cafe. Dont know why. May be because people would not have gone to a restaurant with name Karachi cafe.
Things to bring to SA:
1. A big smile
2. Reminder on ur cell phone to say either sorry or thankyou after every sentense. Or sometines both in a single sentense.
3. No need to bring indian spices or lentils as everything is available here.
4. Definetly bring a pressure cooker if you like to cook rice with a whistling sound.
Cultural shock
If an Indian, for the first time is going abroad to a western country, some of the differences are very obvious. The number of people a scarce. Verry!
As it was not my first time outside India(I was in UK for 2 years), It was not a big surprise for me. Also since In SA most of the infrastructure like governent offices, universities and hospitals were made by europians,( or I should say British and Europians as British is no more a EU country) the infrastructure is very similar to EU. Big buildings with pointed chimneys at the top and small windows were much similar to CST station of mumbai.
Transportation
In SA people seldomely use public transport. Everyone has a car here. So if you have to stay in SA for even a week, make sure you know how to drive.
You will not see 2 wheelers on the road. Not even a single one. The cars follow strick lane rules. Singals are called robots. In India giving indicator signal alone is not enough if you want to take a left/ right turn. You have to time honking precisly with the indicator lights as well. In SA a honk means you are making the car in front aware that it has done something wrong(it actually means swearing the car in front) since cars here do not break rules that often, you will hardly hear honking.
So driving in SA is much much easier as compare to India if you can control the urge to overtake every car, stop honking insenisbly or to a bappi libari song tune, maintain lanes and offcource stop whe the signal is red.
People:
One thing you will notice is the diversity of people here. There are black, brown/coloured, asians and white. SA has a interesting history of freedom from EU rule and Uprising by Mandella and everything. After freedom both white and black decided to stay togetger with peacefullness and love.
So if you go to a mall or a grocery shop, you will atleast see people from 3 to 4 ethnic groups. People in SA are friendly as compared to british. They are aleays looking to start a conversation with a stranger. If they identify u r a indian, they will start with either IPl or bollywood. If not both they wipp definelty talk abouth the weather today. It is a great skipp we can learn from them. They are very polite and will make sure you are not slightly offended, which indians get very easily.
Indian food
Indian dont like to experiment very much when it comes to food. Even if they have had a burger from MacD, there always space for daal makhni or butter chicken. SAns love indian food. They crave for mexican and indian food since it is spicy. So there are many indian restaurant throughout cape town. They might not serve authentic indian food but it still looks indian and is spicy. Some pakistani restaurant have also named restaurants as Taj and Bombay cafe. Dont know why. May be because people would not have gone to a restaurant with name Karachi cafe.
Things to bring to SA:
1. A big smile
2. Reminder on ur cell phone to say either sorry or thankyou after every sentense. Or sometines both in a single sentense.
3. No need to bring indian spices or lentils as everything is available here.
4. Definetly bring a pressure cooker if you like to cook rice with a whistling sound.
No comments:
Post a Comment