I feel like all good stories start with "One time..." I also promised I would chronicle all my cross-cultural mishaps with this blog.
Ergo, number one of many that I'm sure to have in India.
Here's some necessary background info:
We've been meeting with tons of professors, community leaders, NGO founders and employees and government officials. Today, Dr. K informed us that we would be meeting the speaker of the house for Tamil Nadu. In India, the state government alone is huge and welds a lot of power, unlike the United States. This would have been a completely rare and exciting opportunity and then the Americans got a little confused.
First, we were invited into his bungalow where we received welcome shawls, as per south Indian tradition and welcoming statements and introductions were made. Completely normal since it was the usual custom for all our Indian events.
Soon, we found ourselves facing the giant TV in the room, (which was pretty cramped with all 15 of us, plus government officials and the help) bombarded with news clippings of the speaker of the house as he recorded us sitting there watching TV.
We then proceeded to re-watch said recorded video onto a projector.
So this is what it looked like; 15 tired American college students, uncomfortably crammed into a room watching with confused looks on our faces, a video of ourselves, still doing the exact same thing, just five minutes prior, as tea, coke and cookies were constantly handed to us.
Once he answered a few questions and told us a few more strange stories, we clapped (side note: I'm pretty sure Indians think Americans clap for everything because that's what we would do to fill awkward silences during lectures...turns out clapping doesn't mean something is finished, it means keep going. Oops, only took us a week to figure that out.) and stood up thinking it was time to leave.
All of the sudden, we were ushered into his office, an even smaller room, where we watched more of his videos.
This is where it gets really strange. Since none of us speak Hindi or Tamil we couldn't understand anything in the Bollywood style videos he was showing us, all while we sat in his office, which was covered in far larger than normal portraits of himself.
We later learned that it wasn't a Bollywood movie, but rather propaganda-like campaign commercials with terrible super imposed graphics and effects in Tamil. Very North-Korea style. The self-portraits were just an added bonus.
We were awkwardly forced to eat more cookies, drink more chai and were encouraged to continue clapping until we were able to finally find an excuse to leave.
The entire time we were afraid to laugh or make a peep, thinking we would offend someone. Instead when we got back on the bus, Dr. K burst out into the most ridiculous giggle fit and yelled. "I don't know about you, but that guy was a freaking nutjob!"
I can't tell you a single thing about the local government structure in Tamil Nadu. But after today I can tell you:
1. Clapping does not mean the same thing in India.
2. All older people get really excited when they figure out technology.
3. You should probably gather some background information before you watch something in Tamil or Hindi.
Finally: I am, by nature, prone to awkward situations. I apologize if this affects anyone reading in the future.
- Kaitlyn
Ergo, number one of many that I'm sure to have in India.
Here's some necessary background info:
We've been meeting with tons of professors, community leaders, NGO founders and employees and government officials. Today, Dr. K informed us that we would be meeting the speaker of the house for Tamil Nadu. In India, the state government alone is huge and welds a lot of power, unlike the United States. This would have been a completely rare and exciting opportunity and then the Americans got a little confused.
First, we were invited into his bungalow where we received welcome shawls, as per south Indian tradition and welcoming statements and introductions were made. Completely normal since it was the usual custom for all our Indian events.
Soon, we found ourselves facing the giant TV in the room, (which was pretty cramped with all 15 of us, plus government officials and the help) bombarded with news clippings of the speaker of the house as he recorded us sitting there watching TV.
We then proceeded to re-watch said recorded video onto a projector.
So this is what it looked like; 15 tired American college students, uncomfortably crammed into a room watching with confused looks on our faces, a video of ourselves, still doing the exact same thing, just five minutes prior, as tea, coke and cookies were constantly handed to us.
Once he answered a few questions and told us a few more strange stories, we clapped (side note: I'm pretty sure Indians think Americans clap for everything because that's what we would do to fill awkward silences during lectures...turns out clapping doesn't mean something is finished, it means keep going. Oops, only took us a week to figure that out.) and stood up thinking it was time to leave.
All of the sudden, we were ushered into his office, an even smaller room, where we watched more of his videos.
This is where it gets really strange. Since none of us speak Hindi or Tamil we couldn't understand anything in the Bollywood style videos he was showing us, all while we sat in his office, which was covered in far larger than normal portraits of himself.
We later learned that it wasn't a Bollywood movie, but rather propaganda-like campaign commercials with terrible super imposed graphics and effects in Tamil. Very North-Korea style. The self-portraits were just an added bonus.
We were awkwardly forced to eat more cookies, drink more chai and were encouraged to continue clapping until we were able to finally find an excuse to leave.
The entire time we were afraid to laugh or make a peep, thinking we would offend someone. Instead when we got back on the bus, Dr. K burst out into the most ridiculous giggle fit and yelled. "I don't know about you, but that guy was a freaking nutjob!"
I can't tell you a single thing about the local government structure in Tamil Nadu. But after today I can tell you:
1. Clapping does not mean the same thing in India.
2. All older people get really excited when they figure out technology.
3. You should probably gather some background information before you watch something in Tamil or Hindi.
Finally: I am, by nature, prone to awkward situations. I apologize if this affects anyone reading in the future.
- Kaitlyn
Nice!!So when you come home and the youth clap at everything you share will just keep talking?
ReplyDeleteDon't I do that regardless if people are clapping or not? ;)
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