Good to know
Head shaking
Another convenient thing to know is that Indians shake their head a lot. It looks a lot like shaking no for us but that’s absolutely not what it means! (well sometimes…). When the Indians shake their head, it might mean that they say yes, they do not understand, agree with you, or do understand. A lot of the times it means yes and that they understand you, but just to be sure, for example when you order dinner. Check the order a few times with the waiter to be sure they got your order right.
Obtruding
Forget everything about what your parents told you to be nice and wait in line. Queues almost do not exist in India. So when you have to wait and you are going to stand in line you are going to wait a really long time. Do not be afraid that you are being rude when you are obtruding, everyone does it and it is not considered rude. It is just the way things go around here. Do pay a little attention though, because in some places you do have to stand in line, but you will find out soon enough, just follow what the Indians are doing.
Crossing the road
The image of India which you might already know, is that traffic is complete chaos. The best advice I can give you to cross the road is to just go. Traffic lights are not common, and if you are going to wait until there is no traffic, you can wait a very long time. Cars just stop when you start walking and this is also not considered rude. Also do not be afraid of the scooters, they will keep driving, but they will drive around you, just watch out and start walking.
Patience Patience Patience...
In India you will have to learn to have a lot of patience. Things will definitely not go as fast as you are used to. For example, when you want to send a suitcase from let’s say the Netherlands to England. You go to the post office, pay the price, deliver the suitcase and they will do the rest, takes you an hour. In India, you go with your suitcase to the post office, discuss the price and wait and help packing your suitcase, this takes approximately 5-6 hours. See the difference? The best tip I can give you is take into account that when someone says 10 minutes, it is 10 Indian minutes which equals25-45 minutes.
Yes means no and no means yes
It happens that when you want something, Indians say yes. In reality they have no clue what you are talking about. Don’t take this the wrong way, they just want to be polite. When you doubt it that they understood you, please describe to them again what you want in a different way, until you are sure that they understand.
The same goes for no. Sometimes you ask for something, like Water, and they say they do not have it. This mainly occurs because they did not understand your pronunciation. So when you asked for water and they say no, try saying a bottle of water, cold water and play a little with the pronunciation, normally it turns out that they do have what you want.
Selfie Selfie Selfie
Last but not least, prepare to be a human attraction. When you visit places local people also go to, it occurs that they want to take selfies with you. Don’t get afraid, because they do not mean to do you any harm. Normally it is just because they have never or rarely see people with a white skin color. It is up to you if you want to do it or not. When you say no to a selfie people will understand and will in the most occasions not further bother you.