observations on indians

i've noticed a few things:

- hindu women only wear nailpolish on their left hand, and sometimes on their toes. never on their right hand. this is because the right hand is to remain clean. they use the left hand for cleaning, and the right for eating.
- muslim women wear no nailpolish on any fingers or toes because they are to be kept clean at all times for prayer, and nailpolish is considered to prevent cleanliness underneath the nail itself.

- in the colder climates, women will cover their beautifully ornate, colorful saris with the most boring piece of clothing ever invented: the cardigan. it's like an oxymoron to me, a complete contradiction.

- there is no such thing as a line in india--- not for driving lanes, not for queues, not for going through security checkpoints or boarding trains, ferrys planes, etc. they huddle up in a huge mass and just push their way to the front. like survival of the fittest. as much as i hate it, and i yell at ppl for touching/pushing me or getting in my personal space, i learned that the only way to survive is to do the same. when in india... and when you are forced to get in a line, trust that someone will literally be on your back, pushing for you to get through so that they can get through. this also explains why taxis are notoriously such fabulous drivers in the city. they bring their same driving skills to nyc. organized chaos.

- you will find toilet paper in touristy areas, but more often you will find a hose attached to the wall with a spray nozzle. this is for cleanliness, although i think this is more of a muslim thing, because i always see it in egypt and in other very muslim hoseholds in the US. they don't wipe, they wash. it's like a shower for your v-jay. i quite like it, i admit.

- upon boarding my british airways flight to mumbai, i found it extremely ironic that the indian government required that BA spray the aircraft with insecticide once the plane was boarded and sealed. india didn't want any insects carried over. isn't that funny? you would think it's the other way around. they better spray the plans when we head back to london!

my friend took gulf air and had 2 cockroaches crawl on her seat. do you know what would happen if that were me? they would have to make an emergency landing anywhere they were to calm me down. and i would make sure that the flight was fully refunded. grosssssss.