Serious about Marathi

As mentioned somewhere in previous posts, although Hindi is an official language in India each state has its own, unique language. In Maharashtra (with Mumbai as its capital) it is Marathi. Maharashtra is one of these states which treats their language very seriously and makes sure that people maintain it and use it on daily basis. Therefore all the tables and signs on the streets are written in Marathi, all the numbers on buses as well (this is really making my life more complicated!) and finally all the official institutions operate in Marathi. If you go to the police station (luckily haven’t had such an opportunity… yet) they will examine you for sure in Marathi, if you are a politician standing for elections in Mumbai don’t even think of not knowing Marathi. Why? You can get slapped!! Check out this article and see what happens if you try and talk in Hindi here

And on the top of that The Maharashtra government has recently made it mandatory for new applicants for taxi driver permits to be domiciled in the state and be able to read, write and speak Marathi. LINK
Well, another obstacle to keep Maharashtra only for Maharashtrans and prevent immigration from other parts of the country. (Will write about immigration later) For me, another reason to get confused whether Indians are one…or not…?

Staring

Imagine you travel in a subway in Warsaw or any other European city. Suddenly, you spot someone who looks different. Maybe they have a different skin color, maybe they are dressed up in a weird way, maybe have a funny hairstyle. You can’t not have a look, you want to see more details… While you are enjoying your view, the person promptly looks back. What do you do? Whistle? Quickly start staring at your shoes? Search for something in your bag? Take out your mobile? Basically, you pretend you haven’t been watching this entire time and you are just normally busy with your life. I am sure all of us have done it several times in our lives.

Let’s analyze now how the same process looks like in India, assuming I am the one looking different. (I don’t know why someone would think I am different because I am a Mumbaiker ONLY :P) but let’s assume it for a second. I am getting into the bus, sitting on one of the available seats and of course I can feel hundreds of eyes looking in my direction. In most of the cases I ignore it, have been here for 7 months now so got used to this all. It was actually fun at the beginning because wherever I went I felt like pop star ;) But I got over it now :P However, sometimes, just for fun, I would look back to check the reaction… and you know what? People keep staring! No one even tries to pretend they haven’t been watching, they actually stare more because now they can see my face as well!! In some cases, when I am in a good mood I will start fooling them, making stupid faces, giving some of my biggest and brightest smiles or saying hi. This makes a staring person most excited and from then on I can be sure they joined my fans’ circle and I can enjoy their stares till the end of the journey!! :D Good fun!!

Conversations with rikshawallas

I can't say I speak Hindi... I am not even close to speaking Hindi... In the office I don't need it because everyone speaks English... on the streets... well... I know a few basic phrases required to buy food, bargain about prices of food and clothes and of course explain to the rikshawalla how to get to my house.

These few basic sentences like: "turn left" or "go straight ahead" or "wait one minute" make these lovely rikshawallas think I can speak proper Hindi.
First when they realize that I speak to them in Hindi they stop their rikshas and turn around checking again if I am really a foreigner. Then they smile and ask: "Hindi?" to which my reply is: "tora, tora" (a little) which makes them smile even more! Then assuming they found an interesting person to have a conversation with they would start with thousands of questions. Typical dialogue:

RW: Madam, which country?
ME: Poland
RW: Which country?
ME: Poland
RW: Kya? (What?)
ME: (giving up) Europe
RW: (smiling) aah, Europe, nice country, nice country, Madam!
RW: Husband?
ME: No
RW: (smiling) Me wife and 1 daughter
ME: Nice
RW: Something, something,something (in Hindi)
ME: Bhaiya (Brother) HINDI Nei!
RW: Something, something, something (in Hindi)
ME: Hindi nei!
RW: Something, something, something (hoping that if he repeats 5 times I will finally understand)
ME: (giving up, pretending I understand) Ha (yes)
RW: Something, something, something (in Hindi)
ME: (laughing) Ha, Ha
RW: Something, something, something (in Hindi)
ME: (pretending I am surprised) Ha, ha

and we can go like this for 40 minutes :D

Ride in riksha: Rs 56
Smile of the RW (showing ALL the brown from tabacoo he has been chewing teeth): priceless!!!

Santa goes green!

The places where you can definitely feel the Christmas spirit are shopping malls! I went to one of them just a day before Christmas and it felt so much like home! I was however wondering why all the Santa Clauses were wearing green clothes there. In my head I was finding reasons – cultural differences, green goes better with darker skin or green is fashionable this year... but the reason was much more interesting and exciting! Santa goes green! He has become eco – friendly, he acts sustainably and he cares for environment! WOW! Isn’t it a creative way to approach two topics at the same time? And it links so well with my posts about environment! I was really amazed!

Merry Christmas!

It is a very funny feeling to celebrate Christmas when there is 30 degrees outside and 90% of the people around you don’t have a clue what this festival is all about. However they still try very hard and use the excuse of Christmas to take a day off, to do some extra shopping or to organize the celebration in the office. This is what happened in my department on 23rd of December. Suddenly someone came up with the idea of Christmas celebration and we all went mad! Lots of food, including Christmas cake, Santa Clause, Santa caps for everyone and Christmas game with prizes! When we were about to start the event someone realized that most of the people don’t know why exactly we want to celebrate Christmas and what is so special about this day, so they suddenly decided to call “an international expert” or “foreign consultant on Christmas” to give an opening speech! Guess who that was!!! I seriously don’t know what exactly I said, I guess something about how Christmas is celebrated in Poland and how I am missing snow but they were laughing and clapping so I am assuming it was pretty successful ;)





Aren’t we all looking cute in these caps?
Note how they made me bend because I was too tall and was not fitting in the picture ;)

Unity in the diversity vol.2

Although so diverse, Indians are also among most proud and patriotic nations I have ever interacted with. They keep talking about how great India is, how wonderful their nature and cuisine are, how the most entrepreneurial and smartest people in the world are from India. And they truly manifest it, people have small flags in each car and house, they play national anthem before a movie starts in the cinema… and my favorite: they write “India is great on everything”. The picture you can see is an authentic picture of a truck I have taken. Apart from a typical: “Horn OK please” and “Stop Signal” you will also see Indian flag and “India is great” sign. Seriously, think about it - isn’t India great?!

Unity in the diversity!

India is diversity. 14 official languages spoken, 8 main religions being largely represented, food and weather change from state to state, people wear different clothes and have different lifestyles in different parts of the country. This diversity is very much noticeable in Mumbai, since it is the melting pot, the city where people from all the corners of the country come to look for jobs, to look for better future. Walking around you will see restaurants like: “South Indian treat”, “Punjabi dream” or “Goa Cafe”. You will see people celebrating all the possible festivals of all the religions, starting in August with Ganesha Festival (Hindu), Dassera (Hindu), Ramadan (Muslim), Diwali (Hindu) and concluding with Christmas (for all the different types! of catholics). I was seriously wondering how these all different religions can coexist here and I still don’t have a rational explanation for that, however it somehow works! What is even more interesting, whatever your religion is you tend to celebrate all these festivals! All of us were participating in the Diwali pooja (kind of a prayer organized in my office during Diwali) and now everyone is just crazy about Christmas, decorating the office, sending Christmas wishes, etc. Check out the clip I have just received today from one of my colleagues! It fully represents what exactly I am talking about! Jingle bells – Punjabi style!