Things you wanted to know but were afraid to ask! FOOD!

sadhuji

yes, such actions may make westerners blush as indians blush when they see western boys and girls in intimate embraces - they may have met hardly half an hour back for all we know!!!

snowcrab

Too right! LOL

Way too much sex and too little friendship.

rangss

Snowcrab,

For instance, no one in the west would wash hands before or after a meal out in public, it would always be done in private behind a closed door.

Not in India. Everybody eats with their hands...so washing in public does not become a bathing-in-public thing. Besides, washing in public displays your adherence to cleanliness...and also announces your intention to eat! Earlier, the baths and wash areas were always *behind* the house, shielded from the eating place. So privacy. Later lack of space and the introduction of (western) sink meant the rules had to be modified.

No one would ever offer to help another with this kind of activity unless the one being helped was physically challenged and then their caregiver would go into the private room with them to assist them.

Your hand would be unclean if you used it to eat. How would you scrub your hand with soap, if you have a container in your clean hand and no running water? A little help does not look bad. After all, this is not bathing.

There is none of that business of rinsing out the mouth and spitting into the street or a sink. Brushing of teeth in train corridors or pouring water over oneself, one's child or one's cow beside a community well just isn't the done thing. Of all those activities only washing the cow in public would be acceptable, animals are not perceived as needing privacy for these kinds of activities.

You would be surprised how my grandma or her mom would react if I spit into the sink or the street. They would brand my tongue with hot iron ! It is NOT an acceptable thing in India too. As a Kid, My mom NEVER allowed me to throw up in the sink. Had to do it into the pot. Rinsing one's mouth is OK, but then, there is a place to do that and that would not be in the open. Expectoration, in general, is considered yuck! and therefore, is frowned in public. Why do people do it then? Beats me...laziness? lack of a proper place? lack of space? lack of eductaion? uncontrolled instincts? Washing near wells...same thing goes. However, I remember my grand dad'shome...old fashioned with a well as the source of water for all purposes save drinking (another, smaller well for this). There was a walled enclosure away from the well, where we took our bath after drawing it from the well. Never ever near the well. Brushing of teeth in the corridor of trains...where else? The loos stink. People do it...rather than eat with a foul mouth.

India is changing though. I noticed in the Bangelore bus station restaurant a sign requesting that customers not spit in the hand-washing sink. Probably got more to do with disease prevention than social taboos I suspect.

You say India is changing? ...There was a time in the past when personal hygiene was a compulsion. Spitting, expectoring, defecating in the open were considered nothing less than blasphemous, people took bath thrice a day and built their baths and toilets away from the living quarters. Mango leaves were tied to doorways to prevent insects, neem stalks were chewed to clean teeth and leaves to wash floors. Rangoli was laid in delightful patterns outside kitchens, using powdered rice...to keep insects and ants away from foodstufs inside. Flowers and incense were the deodorants and every one had a personal spittoon made of brass. There were two or three wells...one for drining and others for washing. Vessels and clothes were steamed as there was no detergent. There are no taboos as we could think them to be...only hygenic practices.

So India is not changing....it HAS changed. But you are right...It's a minor thing but illustrates how small things can define cultural differences.

Homosexuality...just imagine how professional wrestlers feel when their bodies are locked. Do they feel aroused ? All of them are not gay. I guess, it is all in the interpretation . In any case, homosexuality is a major taboo in India and homosexuals are not easily welcome.

Finally, there IS no such thing as a Japanese tea ceremony in reality... just used it in a colloquial way to describe elaborate ceremonies. The Japanese have poilte ways of serving tea.

__________________
...and I took the road less travelled.

snowcrab

Actually, I think most of us westerners who come to India are quite suprised how much cultural baggage we bring with us, and are quite happy to dump it. I know I wash my hands about three times as often as I ever did before.I took three showers a day while I was there just to not feel sticky. I wouldn't have minded being able to dump a bucket of water overmyself every now and then too! My remarks were not meant to be taken as criticism.

I don't find all this hand washing in public anywhere near as annoying as always having to wait for someone to get out of the bathroom!

And I'm of an age where I think that young people should cool it in the street also. We were more discrete in my day and I think that young westerners should have a little more respect for attitudes in their host country than to do some of the things they do.

In some ways I am really sad for the west. Sure there's a reaction to prudishness and just a generally too ritualized code of public conduct, but I think in many ways the pendulum has swung too far and we have traded graciouness and consideration for crudeness and boorishness. It's not quite so bad in Canada, this is a much more conservative and old fashioned country than the US. But I watch American TV programs every now and then and am just sickened by the cruelty and coarseness I see. That's why I say, don't take the west for your benchmark of civilization-things are devoving pretty fast around here.

Take the ipod and leave the attitude!

The only thing I found about Indian customs that I cursed every day was having to wear that horrible scarf across my chest all the time, hot awkward, annoying,getting caught on everything, damn near strangled myself with it a couple of times. I would love to see Indian women liberate themselves from that torure device! I carried an umbrella all all the time in the daytime because my skin is very sensitive to sunlight and those two items just do not work well together. And there is no way on earth I would ever expose my midriff in public or wear short sleeves in that hot sunshine, I'm way past the days for that kind of display.

Other than that, I just loved India.

rangss

[quote=snowcrab] My remarks were not meant to be taken as criticism./QUOTE]




Did I sound bullish in my post? Well I certainly did not take your remark as a criticism. I was merely giving some explanations to your ??.

snowcrab

Cool.
You did "sound" emphatic.
Must be all those bold caps.

Different is good. I hope to be able to get back to India some day, very lively hopeful sort of place. I work with homeless and very impoverished people in the inner city here. I'm a graphic designer for a street news paper.There is so much anger, hatred and despair in those who do not share in the wealth of this country that they don't even try anymore.

They just drink and complain that white people abused their grandparents in residential schools or that their wife left them or whatever-million different stories. I found India a very hopeful place because even very poor people still have a capacity for joy and fun and are willing to try absolutely anything to help themselves. I just loved all those street vendors and touts and small merchants. I kept thinking how wonderful it would be if our guys could find within themselves that sort of spirit and enthusiasm.

Nick-H

Rangss; the Japanese have polite ways of doing everything

But there really and truly is a tea ceremony; it is a big deal, and has nothing to do with every-day tea drinking. I've seen it on TV (so it must be true ) and the guuy demonsrating even had special hut in the garden, with low doorway. I've never seen it in real life, but I've talked to Japanese colleagues about it.

__________________
.


Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

rangss

Hmmm...I thought so...

Is it a ladies prerogative to serve tea in the ceremony?

Nick-H

I don't think so

rangss

This is a universal phenomenon. I guess there are people in every nation who feel this way. Even India.

But you are right...poor people in India do have a capacity for joy and fun. Their's is a happiness money can't buy...

rangss

Nick-H

Just asked so because, the first picture that comes to my mind about Japanese tea making is that of a pretty Japanese woman, dressed in a traditional kimono, holding a cup daintily, with a shy and smiling face. sitting on the floor by the low tea table and.....Geishas? Must have seen this somewhere.

skell

If you haven't heard of it, "Memoirs of a Geisha" is a very interesting and entertaining book. They were strictly schooled in performing the tea ceremony, among lots of other things.

But today, I think it's done by the host, male or female.

Nick-H

Google has quite a few answeres. Try, for instance,
This link about Tea Ceremony

brightspark

Of course there is a formal tea ceremony. You would find several books written on it, besides countless references to it in books translated into English that I have read..

Even the hotel (shin takanawa prince) I used to stay on my visits to Japan, had a tea ceremony lesson for the tourists. I did not attend it as it was usually during working hours.. and also I am not sure if I wanted to.

Some internet sites discussing Japanese tea ceremony

http://www.holymtn.com/tea/Japanesetea.htm

http://www.teahyakka.com/J.html

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2096.html

http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/...a_ceremony.htm

Chandra

I never found washing hands in public strange. I never even thought about it other than that the first time I came to India I remember thinking how convenient it is that almost all restaurants have a wash basin.

I really don't feel that washing hands is an especially private thing where I come from... (Not that it's a very public thing either, but I really didn't think about it before I read snowcrab's post.)

Not washing children in public either. I mean, in Norway parents don't even hesitate to change diapers on their children in public.