INDIANness Here & There

Two incidents happened yesterday and I was certainly not happy with the 'Indian way' people behaved in both the cases. The first one was in metro train when I was silently reading my novel (standing!). All of a sudden a guy from my back asked what I was reading. I told him the title of the book and the name of the author. Then he asked me about the story. I told him the brief synopsis too. Then he suggested a novel titled something like those of a soap opera these days (see, suggestions are so cheap here, everybody is distributing them for free and nobody is giving a job to this poor jobless soul). And to my disgust he even started narrating the story to me about how a guy meets a girl through sex chat or while watching online porn or something and how they were deeply in love after having a couple of rounds of phone sex and how my friend who was narrating the story was deeply touched by one single sentence of the girl where she confesses to the boy that he was only the seventh guy she had slept with. Okay this version of the conversation is a bit exaggerated by me but one can assume what situation I would have been while listening to the boring story of some Bollywood Masala Chhap novel. Further aggravating was the situation when he started asking about my educational background, the job I was doing/did, even the salary I used to get (Wow!). The only thing left, perhaps, was how many grandchildren I dream of having!! And after listening to my story, this guy again started fretting about what he is doing and what he wants to do, what factor is creating a hindrance in his plans of doing an MBA and what is the alternate path he is taking. I don't understand the reason for which people start sharing all this to complete strangers, without bothering about whether the later is interested in it or no! Sometimes, the need of talking and expressing one's feeling may be there but why is this need seems a priority while travelling only! Still trying to figure out the answer!

The other incident took place an hour after the above one. I had a telephonic interview scheduled between 11:30 am to 12:30 pm for the LAMP fellowship. I was all ready with my phone fully charged, earphones ready, and answers dancing in my head ready to be thrown out through mouth. But to my utter surprise, no call came between the given time interval (obviously Indian). I mailed them regarding this and they apologized citing for their 'running behind the schedule'. The same could have been done at the given time so that I could have spared the tension of waiting for the call. And to add to that, they called me up at around 2:45 pm asking to give the interview then. I was not at home and couldn't do that at that time. When I requested rescheduling, I was asked in details what I was doing for not being able to give the interview. I don't understand why was the interviewer so keen in knowing what exactly I was doing then (since you are an Indian, share everything about your life with me!). May be I was planning to murder someone but that is nobody's business. You were supposed to call me at a given time and you didn't. Now, why are you after what I am doing and how long will I take doing that?

I guess people realize that there is a personal space not to be intruded!

P.S. Heartiest congratulations to Chirag Agrawal. The dood is going to IIMA for grad school. Please drop by and congratulate him here.