In total I’ve spent about three months in India split between three separate trips, I’ve come to learn there’s a few things Indians want to know:

1. “Your country?” An old one but a good one. More than any other country in the world Indians want to know where I’m from. “Scotland” is often met with disappointment. I’m assuming because they don’t know it rather than they don’t like it. So I usually elaborate with “whisky”. If that doesn’t work I admit defeat and say “England”. It kills me.
2. “Selfie?” This is a new one and not something I’m super keen on. The requests of the white girl came thick and fast in Mumbai, one female even accosted me in the toilets of Mumbai airport requesting a selfie. I’ve taken to saying “ok, only one” otherwise I’m there all day… I don’t really mind of course but some families take it too far and want individual photos and group family shots and god knows what all….

   

3. “How many roti?” It’s a killer. I just want a pile of bread so I can pig out on curry! Don’t ask me beforehand cos now I have to give a restrained answer of “2” and can’t eat myself into a curry coma which is what I really want to do.

   

4. “How far?” When I get back from running, hotel owners / people on the street / loitering rickshaw drivers often ask me how far I’ve run. It makes me laugh cos they always say something like “2km? 3km?” Or some other ridiculously low number… they then don’t seem to believe me when I tell them actually how far I ran….

   

5. Finally, this is not a question, but old women often want me to tie my hair back which makes me laugh so much! In other countries I usually get the opposite request as they want to touch long curly hair… but not India! I always oblige because it makes them SO happy when I do as they ask and pull it back into a bun!