Well if you are timid and non assertive, yes, you’ll be pushed over. But the definition of politeness varies. You don’t have to say ‘please’ and ‘sorry’ constantly in India. Politeness can be calling someone ‘aap’ or ”ji’, offering a little help, showing signs of respect, making small talk etc. I have always done it, and can’t say that I haven’t been able to get things done. The things that frustrate me are the traffic and lack of queues.

I think their rude and aggressive behaviour can be attributed to drugs and the subsequent mood swings that drug users go through frequently – daily, hourly, even from moment to moment.

On the contrary, many non-Isreali tourists go to India with an overly reverent attitude, bordering on worship for all things and all people “Indian”.

However, to be fair, we all know that India can really set people off sometimes. Things can be so frustrating there and sometimes ordinarily calm and cool folk can be pushed to the edge.

India has a way of pushing alot of buttons.

And if we really want to be honest, when you see at how yelling at “help” is common in India – by, for and towards other Indians, well, you start to think that “this is the way people communicate with each other here”.

Until you meet an ultra bhadra-lok parivara and then you wonder “what is wrong with them?”… Then after sometime it dawns on you that just because most of India carries on that way “yelling at help”, doesn’t mean that it is neccessarily “right”.

But then is it wrong? So many times I’ve thought people were fighting and they say, “oh we’re just having a conversation”.

Can be very confusing.

If you’re extra-polite in India, you will never be able to get anything done.

I didn’t say this was a slight on India at all. To the contrary I said that Indians were invisible and that was weird to me, but it was probably realistic and no different from the way Americans behave when they go to Mexico.

We blog about things that amuse us, not just things that irritate us. We’re not one trick ponies.

The references to India are pretty slight;

It’s odd for me as an Indian to find anything odd with the clips. I don’t see any slight to India.

I saw a Hindi movie (Jism) with the story taking place in Pondicherry. I never thought the movie is a slight for Tamils / Pondicherry because of the lack of references to Tamils or their culture.

I think directors / story writers are more interested in their target audience than the people who happen to live in the locale of their film shoots.

Hmm. this is the second time from you talking about Israeli slight on India. Do i see a motive?.

Between that, and the Russian woman washing her sandy toddler off in the drinking fountain, I knew I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

There was a lot of interest in what they considered Indian spirituality, but Israelis are among the most insular individuals in the entire world.

i thought muslim arabs weren’t allowed to join the army?”

A lot of the Israeli Arabs are Christian Arabs, though I don’t know the percentage. In the city of Haifa, for instance, the Arabs are mostly Christians and this town is known for its relatively harmonious interethnic relations, though even there they don’t mix too much. btw, there was an Indian restaurant there. The owners were actually Jews whose ancestors had lived in India for generations, and they did look Indian–but sort of Jewish too. A co-worker from Iraq told me that one third of Iraq had been Christian until the late 70s, after which time most fled. I’d had no idea there were so many Christians in the middle east, other than Lebananon and Syria. The Christian Arabs are MUCH less anti-Jewish state, for obvious reasons. Also Druze and some other minority groups are considered good soldiers in the Israeli army.

sigh I really should have to explain myself. First, I’m explaining why an Israeli would be prone to mistreating an Indian there. It’s because they’re dealing with people who aren’t likely to stand up to them. If someone is being an asshole in your store kick them out. It’s YOUR store.

If you’re going to do business with assholes I don’t want to hear whining about how they’re assholes. Is that so hard? If they tried those sorts of shenanigans in Mumbai some neighborhood toughs would show up to teach them a lesson.

And the citizens of Goa just stood by and watched, as unarmed foreigners took over a beach in their own state? Can Goans even think of creating a ‘Goa Beach’ in Israel?. Ought to show some spine, my man friend. I remember being in a Delhi pub where some drunken Brits started misbehaving first with the waiters, and then with the management. You should have seen how quickly they were ‘sorted out’.

Only with the Russians and North Indians (read Dilliwalas) coming in large numbers and buying up land has the animosity against the Israelis eased.

So, who do hate most theses days? Russians, North Indians, or Israelis?

yoga fire, the whole thing makes it sound like getting treated badly is their own fault. is that really what ur trying to say?