What You Should Know About Indian Culture Before Your First Trip To India?

If you are an avid reader of travel blogs on India visits or Indian culture, you’d know that visiting India for the first time can be a big cultural shock to anyone and can easily seem chaotic. However, while that’s true, there is an order to the chaos here. So if you are planning a trip to India for the very first time, here’s what you should be doing: book cheap flight tickets from USA to Kolkata on Flyopedia, read up here on what you need to do to be prepared to dive into the chaotic melee of India and lastly, pack up your bags and arrive! Ready? Here we go!

What to do when you arrive in India

Dress conservatively.

It’s not a secret that Indian people dress conservatively on most occasions. While that has changed in big cities, if you plan on traveling to smaller cities or villages, you need to remember to dress modestly. Showing your back is usually okay for most areas, but it is for the best to cover your cleavage, arms and legs appropriately. And cover yourself fully from head to toe (leaving nothing but your face, forearms and neck visible) when you are visiting religious areas, be it temples, gurudwaras, mosques or anywhere else.

Remove your footwear.

Indians have a general rule of not wearing footwear inside places of residence. So when you are visiting someone’s home, remember to open your footwear outside the entrance door. For religious places, do the same as people consider them the residences of God. Most places would usually have a counter where they store your footwear for the duration of your visit and provide you a token. After you return from the visit, return the token to the counter and get your footwear before leaving the place. For shops, if you find a pile of footwear lying on the door entrance, open your footwear before entering as well.

Also Read: 5 Perfect Trip Ideas If You’re In Love With Indian Culture

Get used to everyone’s stares.

After you book a last minute flight on Flyopedia and arrive in India, you’ll realise this. It might be rude to stare where you live, but everyone and the other does it in India. So don’t get scared, uncomfortable or panic when you find someone staring at you. Get used to it as soon as you can and continue doing your business. Just smile and ignore the stares as there is no way around it.

Use your right hand.

Unless you are a prominent left- handed person, always use your right hand for most of the social things you do. It could be giving people money or receiving change, eating food, etc. This is because people consider the left hand unclean and inauspicious in Indian culture, while the right hand is just the opposite.

No PDA allowed.

People of India do not usually engage in PDA due to their conservative nature, no matter where you go. Holding hands or hugs are okay, but if we are talking about kissing and all NSFW actions, you should best do it behind closed doors.

Talk in English language.

Most Indians understand and speak English, especially in villages and smaller cities. Most people write their shop sign boards in English. And when you’re talking, while most people might not be very fluent, it will usually be enough to understand what the person is trying to convey. Learn the language if you don’t know it already. If you still face difficulties in communication, you can always use Google translate or other translation apps to help you out.

Place your feet carefully.

Indians touch the feet of their elders or join hands to greet Namaste to people of their age group. Hence, they think it is rude when your feet touch their body, regardless of whether it was an accident or not. When it happens, the best way to handle it is by saying sorry.

With all that out of the way, you can also book online flight tickets to India from Canada on Flyopedia.ca and come visit India ASAP!

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