Visiting an indian family on my first night

Hi All,

I'm heading over to South India in a couple of weeks. The first night I am getting in I will be staying at the parents of a close indian friend. He will not be there (is a work mate) and I have never met his parents. I will be arriving at 1 or 2am.

The family (from what I can tell) is fairly well off, and I wish to take them a gift for having me. Normally in Australia I would take a bottle or 2 of wine in this situation, but I am pretty sure that his parents do not drink.

Can anyone give me any suggestions on what gift I should take? Also any suggestions on how not to make an ass of myself visiting an indian family on my first night in the sub-continent would be welcomed.

Cheers,
Anthoy

Take good chocolates instead of wine! Take a calendar showing scenes of your city or country. If there are girl children, take cute hair clips, ribbons, that kind of stuff. Nice tote bags, also with your city's name, can be a good gift.

Maybe not appropriate in this case but my friends tend to buy a lot of electronics to take back home to their relatives.


This site is pretty interesting. Read the part about gift-giving so you won't be surprised if they reject your gift.
http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/india/india.html
There's more to the above story at the site. Also, read the part about the "missing" toilet paper too.

Hi there !

Greetings from INDIA !!!

WINE... Strict No ! No ! specially to south indian family, i agree with idea of Wonder woman to gift the family with your country Calender or some Souvenir which, your city is famous or known for...

Hope this helps you......

Cheers

Team India-Welcomes.com

Any interesting food specialty (cakes, chocolates, cookies, nuts fruits….) from your country would also be welcomed. These are gender and age ‘neutral’ gifts. That is everyone in the family can enjoy the gift alike, which they would love. Keep in mind that the south is predominantly vegetarian. Avoid anything with meat.

Wine ? A big NO. People drink. But wine from son’s friend is a bit odd.

Nevertheless if you are sure of people in the family drink you can give it to them ‘secretly’. You’ll be greatly appreciated. The whole family will come to know about this. But they’ll not get embarrassed and everyone’ll keep the secret!
In other words don’t pullout a big bottle of wine from your bag in front of the whole family crowd and give it to someone!

All etiquette related goof ups would be tolerated. See to that nothing is too offensive.


An after thought

Quote from my earlier post The India Confusion

Quote:

The family factor

Why don't you ask your friend about his parents' attitudes toward alcohol? If they are drinkers, they may really appreciate a bottle of duty free scotch. (but like beach said, perhaps it is best t give it later, to the father of the family). Nice chocolates would probably be appreciated by everyone.

Diane
who has not been to India yet, but has known many Indian people who enjoy scotch whiskey

oops, I just read your original post saying that the parents do not drink...ignore my advice and stick with what the others have said.

Chocolates, Perfumes, After-shaves, deodorants, soaps, talcum powder, cosmetics, a good diary with pen, etc. are much appreciated.

Agree about not giving a wine bottle to a South Indian family. Had it been a North Indian household, a bottle of whisky would have been more than welcomed!!

Ask your friend his fathers shirt size, a nice golf type shirt will be greatly appriciated. Find a decent sized purse for the mother and any sisters that are teens on up. Toys for the kids. I got a toy police car and fire truck that make noise for my twin nephews and they loved it. Disposible cameras, nice pen for the father, anything electronic like video games, you can find really cheap ones now. Don't forget the batteries since they may be expensive to them. If you get any type of jewelry for the mother or sisters make sure it is real gold. They are very knowledgable about their gold! I hope this helps!

I would avoid bringing cheap toys/hair-decorations or any clothing, since they're available locally. (Well-made toys are comparatively rare in India, though, and for the under five set, I never see nice SOFT stuffed animals). Fancy western toiletries and cosmetics are increasingly available in India so they aren't so special either, especially to the well-off.

A nice box of chocolates, assortment of candies, or dried fruit and nuts couldn't go wrong. Also, wall calendars of scenery or other attractive images are not commonly seen in India, so might have that novelty-foreign touch and be a non-controversial, one-size-fits-all gift, like sweets.

Find out from youor friend if his family would appreciate wine, in which case it is the BEST: exotic, unavailable, famous. But if not appropriate, it would be a big mistake.

I wouldn't go for something too Australia-touristy, because after all they are not signing up for a cultural exchange seminar about Australia.

Hi all,

Thanks for the suggestions. Just for the record I wasn't going to take wine, I meant that it is a situation where (if in Australia) I would take a bottle or two of local wine for my hosts.

I've got a few ideas now so I'll see what I can find shopping this weekend. Should I make sure I have gifts for all members of the family or would gifts for the hosts (ie the man and lady of the house) suffice?

Pundy.
(who is still trying to work out the whole culture difference but is going to get a crash course in a couple of weeks!)