Indian working style

Spending a month in the Indian company, talking to many people, attending several meetings and being involved in different activities I have made some observations concerning Indian working style.

Role of relationships.
As Indians in general like to know what is happening in other people's lives they keep the same habit in the workplace too. There is no real border between personal and professional life, all the family issues are discussed with colleagues which slowly leads to them becoming your best friends. Apart from that they celebrate all the possible occasions - birthdays, the birth of a child, wedding, purchase of a new car, graduation, one's first date, new girlfriend, etc. One of the managers told me that even if his reportee doesn't want to tell him what is bothering him he will anyway find out as their wives are best friends too! Can you imagine?

Hierarchy and titles
When at work, especially in big companies people do pay attention to hierarchy. If your boss introduces you to a senior means he treats you seriously. If your boss speaks nobody else has the right to say a word unlsesss asked to. Moreover, Indians like making their work sound more important by adding a sophisticated name of the position/title.
Below the real conversation that happened during one of the meetings I attended.
Participants: A (boss), B, C, D, E, F - team members, G - team leader.
A: here is the list of our assignments. Now we have to decide who will execute them.
G: I suggest B, C and D should get involved in them, they seem to understand the topic.
A: B, C, D, is it O.K. for you?
B,C,D: (nods they heads in whatever directions)
A: Fine, I will call you "core team".
G: Sir, I think E will also take part in this project, he is very interested in the area.
A: E, what do you say?
E: Well, Sir, I studied this a lot, have worked in this area for some time, so I guess I might be helpful.
A: Perfect, how will we call you then?
B: Team leader?
A: No, G is a team leader.Let's call him a champion.

This discussion last for at least 15 minutes and I found it really amusing, was trying my best not to start laughing!

Communication
Not direct at all! Instead of saying: "X, can you do this?" they go with long explanation why and what for, analyze who are the people who might get involved, discussing over their possible titles and only after 30 minutes finishing up with the question: "X, is it fine if we assign you to do this?"
Sometimes I just miss some direct statements, clear plan, flow of the action, structure! Instead I can count on the IT support guys who type slower than me, hours spent on pointless discussions and hours wasted re-doing things that have been already done... just in a different way.. because nobody had stated earlier which is the proper and expected way :)