Cutural shocks as an Indian

India is chaotic, India is disorganized. Yet India is beautiful, there is an underlying order that is visible in the chaos. The connecting factor between the chaos and ethos is the people. Colombia is equally chaotic and disorganized. Yet, Colombia is beautiful and people act as the connection between chaos and ethos. So what happens when an Indian travel to Colombia?

It results in a clash of culture. One of which is the oldest living classical civilizations (Tamil) and the other is an interesting mix of indigenous and Spanish flavors. 

In this post, I want to cover the cultural shocks that I faced as an Indian, a Tamilian and a Madrasi.

1. Excessive Politeness

In buses especially, there are special seats for differently able'd, pregnant women and senior citizens which are marked in blue. Those seats are never almost occupied by the rest even if the buses are full. So the people here are really polite and nice. 

The blue seats are reserved. The person is standing as people do not use blue seats.

It is good to be polite, but when it becomes excessive, it is a culture shock. A regular conversation has a ton of please and thank you. If this protocol is not followed, people think that you are rude. No, it is just that our way of conversation is different. We do not use please and thank you often, but that doesn't mean that we are rude. It is just that we are different.

One other aspect of this is that people almost never say no to anything. I have noticed that some people think that saying no can be rude, so they say ‘I don’t know’. For example, if you invite a friend for drinks and he or she says ‘I don’t know’, it means ‘No’.

2. Food, with cheese, no spices

This is one of the most important factors that can make or break your stay in the country. Colombian food is not spicy. The Colombian spices that are sold in the stores and super markets are soft. The shock here is how people could eat plain food. Simple, that is the food culture here. People eat soft food. I have known people who feel that onions are spicy.

Wow!

3. Hot and Spicy – Are the same or different?

Spicy and hot, are they the same or are they different? In Spanish, both hot and spicy are referred as ‘picante’. In India, hot is when the food has chilies and spicy when the food has a lot of flavors. So when a Colombian refers to Indian food, they say it is ‘picante’.

Well, this is a shock because you are in a country that feels all spices are hot. It is really hard to demonstrate to some one that spices are not hot, when they come from the culture of soft food.

Indian Spices

4. Smell of spices

One of the first shocks that I received in Colombia is the fact that Indians smell spices when we walk around. In the previous points, I have mentioned about how Colombians react to Indian spices. It doesn't stop with that, goes beyond. When I lived in India, I never realized that people smell of spices when they sweat. However, when people complained that I smell of spices, that was a shock. I was shocked because my deodorant failed to mask the smell. One of my bosses suggested an anti-transpirant which was better in masking the smell.

5. Flags, flags everywhere

In India, states do not have flags, leave alone municipalities. It is the opposite here. Every state, every municipality has its own flag. Add to it the bright colors of Colombian flag, what we see is bright colors of flags in a lot of places. I wonder how people create the flags with the mix of colors that is not repetitive.

Creative people indeed!

Flags outside the Mayor's office

6. Vegetarian - Does chicken grow in trees?

One of the most important shocks I received when I came here first was the practical non-existence of vegetarianism. Yes there are vegan restaurants on a small scale, the concept of Indian vegetarianism (Milk – yes, egg – no) does not exist. I remember that when I was new here, I tried to order something vegetarian, the waiter offered chicken. When I requested her to change the food, she gave a look, ‘Isn’t chicken vegetarian?’. ‘Yeah, they grow in trees’. Almost everything has chicken, so read the contents in the menu, or check with the waiter to look for the contents if you are a vegetarian. On the other side, people go the extra mile in order to male special food if they do not have a veggie option. In the places where I eat lunch at work, they make extra efforts to create veggie menu.

 

A vegetarian Colombian plate

7. Patriotic overdoses

As a follow up to the previous point, there is an over dose of patriotism with the radio channels playing the national anthem every day at 6 am and 6 pm. Dude, I know I am in Colombia, I do not need reminders every 12 hours! No offence here, but this was a shock because there is an over dose of patriotism. All of this for the fact Colombians have regionalism running everywhere. A person from the Caribbean is different from someone from the Andean highlands, a person from the Andean highlands is different from a Paisa. Throw in some indigenous mix and Afro Colombians.

8. Catholics and Christians are different

Colombia is a very catholic country. From small villages to large towns, the center of the town is always a cute catholic church. However there are also a lot of Christian churches across towns that have cute names, iglesia de dios (Church of God - hold on, all churches are supposed to be of God, correct?), Iglesia de Esperanza (Church of hope - Thank you for giving me hope). Well, what is the difference if both Catholics and Christians pray to Jesus? A lot, and they are different religions, if you ask a Colombian. Do not even get a Catholic started about a Christian. To start of, Christians do not believe in Christmas, saints, Virgin Mary while the Catholics do. I was under the impression that both are sects of the same religion... When you see that the people have so much divisions between Catholics and Christians, maybe they are different religions.

‘Do you have Catholics in India’?

‘Yes, India has a sizeable Christian population’.

‘I am asking about Catholics’.

‘Aren’t they the same’?

The Part 2 of cultural shocks will be out soon!

A typical Catholic Church 

A Christian Church