Things you can't get used to...

It has been almost 3 months since I have arrived in Bangalore. I think I have been very good at adapting to the way of life here. But inspite of all things I have gotten used to, there are still some things that I just don't understand.

1. Indian people do not understand the concept of a queue. They see you standing there, they know you were there before they were, but still, it makes sense to stand in front of you and demand they get served first.

2. There are signs everywhere literally begging people not to spit and urinate in public spaces. And onto the sign, they spit and urinate, as if the street is their private bathroom.

3. NO ONE, is EVER on time, NOT EVER. It's playfully been nicknamed IST=Indian Standard Time, but it is so frustrating. When someone invites you over for dinner at 8pm, they only serve you food at 11pm. When they tell you that they'll be serving dinner "early" they mean it will be served at 10:45 instead of 11. I remember one New Year's when they served us dinner after midnight--who does that!??

4. The autorickshaw drivers are like communist dictators. You don't tell them where you want to go, they tell you where they are going. You don't pay them what the meter says, you pay them what they tell you to pay them. In the middle of the day, it is impossible to get a rickshaw anywhere. If only the government had that kind of power, there wouldn't be people spitting and urinating on walls, because they could actually find an autoricksaw to take them to a toilet.

5. All bars and clubs close at 11pm. No joke.

6. As Paul pointed out, no where else in the world can you spend rs-8 on a full breakfast and then turn around and buy a rs-20,000 cellphone on the same day. The discrepancy in what things cost here is bizarre.

7. Where have all the women gone? On any given street, as far as you can see, the ratio of women to men is usually about 1:100. Which I guess has normalized the behaviour of men holding hands as they walk down the street. There are guys holding hands everywhere. If there are three guys walking, two hold hands, and the other holds their shoulders.

8. When you try to jaywalk through traffic you get honked at and berated by the drivers, but when a cow stands in the middle of the road and stops traffic, everyone sits and waits patiently for it to move.