Culture Shock!

As I hurriedly walk past the streets of Soho, close to my work one evening, I hear someone calling me from one of the by lanes. It’s Stuart, our janitor, smiling as he catches up with me making small talk. He professes how much he has missed me & would like to invite me for dinner one day & if I could give him my mobile number. All this happens so fast that it takes a while for it to register that Stuart has a shine for me. How dare he? My Indian mentality fumes & am perplexed at how this person could even dream of being with me. I politely refuse saying I’m busy & make my way to the nearest tube station.

One gloomy cold morning I’m traveling in the tube on my way to work when this exceptionally gorgeous women takes a seat opposite me. She’s wearing expensive clothes & shoes & her makeup is flawless. I try not to be too conspicuous as I observe her appearance. Suddenly she looks directly at me & gestures suggestively with her eyes & lips. I’m shocked as I realize that a member of my own gender has made a pass at me. Befuddled, I take solace in the thought that at least she’s beautiful.

A young strapping Polish collegue arrives one morning for his orientation. Hours tick away as I explain the various modules in our system. Out of the blue, he says that he would love to go to India one day & is interested in everything Indian after meeting me. The fact that he’s a decade younger than me doesn’t dampen his determination to know how I like my coffee.

One evening as I sit at the Embankment by the Thames, I come across a strange sight. A girl of Indian origin locked in a passionate display of affection with an english man.

Strange as all this seemed to me initially, I have begun to understand & accept the way of life in the west & yet cling to my beliefs that I have grown up with. As I jog my memory, I reminiscence the various counts of culture shocks that I have experienced in London in the last few months.

Copyright © BuntysBanter 2005