Only in India, by Pooja Bhatia

Only in India...

...can people pronounce my name better than I can.

...will a Catholic woman step aside so that a Sikh can be sworn in as Prime Minister by a Muslim President in a country where more than 80% of the population is Hindu (Thank you, Namaste London).

...can the worst hour of one’s life be followed by the best hour of one's life.

...can people be so very concerned with cleanliness that they take off their shoes before entering their homes and broom and mop twice a day but throw their trash directly into their own backyard.

...can an NGO not know to speak proper English or how to use the Internet but have the best looking website and NGO brochure ever.

...can a home-cooked meal express so much love.

...can a person go to a club and be charged a 2500 Rs. cover charge while 75% of the population lives on less than 25 Rs. per day.

...can after 9 months of having lived in a place a person still cannot correctly pronounce the name of the city she lives in.

...can people claim that they are passionate about humanity, doing social work and equality, yet continue to carry out the age-old tradition of the caste system and commit human rights violations on a day-to-day basis.

...can the majority of people think eating cow is sacrilegious to the Hindu religion but wearing cow leather belts and shoes is not.

...can a person accidently miss her bus stop from Ahmedabad to Udaipur because she fell sound asleep on the sleeper bus, forgot to set an alarm and wake up in a panic and run to the driver who calmly says “We passed Udaipur 2 hours ago” to which she responds with a “Ahhhhhh! WHAT?” and he responds with “It’s okay, don’t worry” and stops the next bus going in the opposite direction and tells her to jump on.

...can men who know all the words and dance moves to every Bollywood song be considered super cool.

...can a person buy a vehicle (pink Scooty what what!) without a valid driver’s license... and then be told there is no need for her to get a license because police officers don’t stop women anyway.

...can a person get dirty looks for walking down the street in a sleeveless shirt but women strutting around with their tummies hanging out is completely acceptable.

....can a person meet extended family members that she’s never met before and feel like she’s known them her whole entire life.

...can people think sacrificing a goat in front of a temple is a symbol of peace and an expression of non-violence.

...can a person bribe a bus driver 20 Rs. so she can get off the bus to go to the bathroom... because there are no bathrooms on Indian buses and the driver has already stopped once for her just a few hours earlier.

...can a Punjabi girl living with a Bihari family in Chhattisgarh try and speak to her relatives in Delhi in what she thinks is Hindi but actually turns out to be a combination of 4 different languages (Punjabi, Hindi, Bihari, and Chhattisgarhi).

...can a person move to a town as a total stranger and leave having become part of a whole new family that she feels like she can’t live without.

Only in India.

- Pooja Bhatia