India. What is the caste system really like? It's not as severe as it once was. I mean, no one goes about calling the Harijans untouchables or anything, they'd get a writ for that, that's infringement of our Fundamental Rights. But as far as other sectors go, it still is VERY obvious. Take education for example-SC/STs get resevations, do like a SC/ST with 65% is prefered over a general class student with 87%, which is totally not unfair. We're still waiting for the 5-year plan that comes into effect in '11 to impeach reservations. Fingers crossed. In the employment sector, yah due to the resevations, there are lower caste people working in high positions, but jobs like of Sweepers, is still specific-the Harijans do them. But otherwise, we all live in peace-You see more conflict between religions, than different castes-though inter-caste marraiges are frowned upon. Do you really let monkeys roam the streets? Yup, and cows, dogs too! , monkeys are the bane of my existence, I'm terrified of them. But no animal is harmed as long as it's not dangerous to society. If I leave heavily populated cities will the locals want to lynch me? I didn't exactly get what you meant here.. How common is English? English is the lingua franca, even among Indians of different places. Even though hindi is our national language, not all places have it as a speaking language. Mostly all students today speak some English these days-at least enough to get by-even though it might be stunted.. How many langauges are there? *goes to google* there are so many, that I don't know the exact no. okay, 22 official and 407 living languages.. Whats the cost of living? India's quite cheap actually for foriegners. Though the rupee is getting stronger, it still has a long way to go. The local prices depend on the inflationa and keep changing. Basically, but, it's comfortably priced. e.g a 4 room apartment would probably cost you about $1320 per year. Is there a good job market for skilled workers?(ie college grads) Yup! It's a developing nation, and there's plenty of work opportunites, NOW. Even if the government jobs are few, there're plenty of them in the private sector. How religious is the local populace? Very! In India, the only thing that comes before nationalism is religion. I personally am a strict Hindu-the type who prays twice a day, etc. We are a SECULAR state, this has been specially mentioned for a reason. If I go to learn about yoga, meditation, buddha, the 6 million(or is more?) gods, ect will I just look like a western asshole? Nope, we respect religion and anything associated. People willing to learn our ways are greeted with open arms, and we love sharing our culture with everyone and anyone.
Neha - how many family members live under your roof. It always comes across everyone lives together. But maybe thats only some parts of india, or im thinking of something else. Also, if you want to make a big dicision (like umm get married, have a child) do you have to ask your parents where they make the decision? Or is this just like old school India etc.
um..mine is a semi-nuclear family. My Dad lives in Ddun, while my Mum, sis and I live here. But the rest of them(23) all live in Haldwani. Generally there are nuclear families, and then there are joint families. The nuclear families are only found in towns and cities..but the joint families are everywhere, esp. in the villages though, where the whole village is related to each other in some manner or the other.. As for marriage-parents do arrange marraiges of course. It's a norm, mostly. But kids are free to marry for love. Personally my parents don't care, but I'd prefer get married the traditional way. As for the rest of the decisions, we take advice, but the decisions(after 18) are entirely up to us..
Man. I love India. There is something so....(there is no word to describe it)...aboit it. I come from Australia. Which means "No culture here, keep on moving"
lol...but Australia has civilisation only on the outlines right? The centres just have forest tribes?
lol...everything has a culture here...even forest tribes(Warlis)...in fact the Bishnois of Rajasthan are so close to nature, that the women their actually breast feed the abandoned baby animals!! and sometimes otherwise too.
True except the KENT bit And we have a Queen because...well I can't imagine not having her really. And she does have some influence, I mean she can officially close Parliament if she wants to..what a temptation lol
Exactly. AMS made me really want to see Botswana It sounds like a beautiful country...not just 'flat and dry' there's the national park and the towns etc Other parts of Africa too, but I'd like to go to Gabarone to see it for myself Neha - post a pic of your school? I want to see it, sounds so much more interesting than mine... hahah here is mine - notice there is only one pic of the school, which is falling down http://www.langton.kent.sch.uk/
sophie, um, I don't exactly have a pic of my school..lol, but here's the school website, there are plenty of pics there: www.allsaintscollege.org
Whoa...I can see why they filmed at your school! It's amazing! It looks like it's out of a film haha. And everyone wears perfect uniform :O Ours was built in the 60s by a blind architect who chose vomit colours and used mostly concrete, that's now all crumbling...
lol, found two pics...sorry it's not clear, was too lazy to scan..lol: the front entrance to the Main office in Senior school: the front entrance to the Junior school:
Ye it takes literally hundreds of years for them to get to that size. The olive tree can live longer then any other tree in the world. By the way, there is an olive plantation just behind my grandmother's house, but they are all babies (five years or so). Man that reminds me; i got to be one of the soldiers that join the birth right trip once. It was a fun experience. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that brings me to the second misconception about Israel. We are not in constant war and even when there is one, no one can really tell the difference (except for the soldiers and the people at the front of course). I work in a gas station with lots of Arabs and i worked there during the Gaza operation. Yes there was some tension, but that more or less dissipated in the first two or three days. Don't get me wrong there is a lot to be done for Israeli Arabs to become fully accepted members of society (like join the fudging military) but over all, Israeli Arabs and Jews get along fine and there is no actual fighting or anything like that. I mean short of the suicide bombings (that haven't happened for a long while now) and the wars, this country is pretty peaceful. Israel has the exact same thing, it's called "yom hazmaot" it's pretty much about seeing fire-works and eating too much cotton candy and corn cobs. Really? I love that place! What was so scary about it? Em... i'm afraid someone spotted you as a tourist and played a little joke on you. No one does that, it's a bit of famous Arab humor (the kind only they find funny). If any of them ever asks you if you know Rosie, don't answer. hm... But i did read an article about some dude being some kind of "camel whisperer" and him selling his camels to the desert tribes (bedoim) for about 8 thousand dollars each.
Ah. Ehm. No, if you're in a really bad part of town. It's not like "you might be mugged" it's "you will be mugged, and you hope that's the only thing they do". Yes, otherwise. It's safe for tourists; no one picks on them unless they're annoying and demand you speak english. Also, one thing I really like about Caracas is that when you get out of the airport you see those houses on the mountains (they illustrate poverty very nicely, pretty nice view), and then you get to the inner city and you see the skycrapers and everyone is in a hurry and everything looks clean and the hotels are so elegant. Let me see if I can find a picture. Ah, here it is. On the left, those are ranchos which are like... shacks. Ghetto shacks, yeah. Hey, I'm thinking about checking out Britain on an europe tour, any places I just have to go (which are near or in London, I think)?
I am from Canada. Feel free to ask me anything....unless it has something to do with government then please don't. Haha.
Wheres the best weed? JK. I think it would be illegal to say that. DO you have to know french if you're not from Quebec?
At least here in Ontario, it's part of the standard public school system from Grade 4 through Grade 10. Might have changed though with the new Ontario high school curriculum.
Just thought it might have been a misconception, and was making it clear. Keep in mine I was only 15 when I went through there. There were A LOT of people, and I was scared I would get seperated from my group. As far as the 30 camels thing was, it wasn't a big deal. It's just a fun story for me to tell my kids when they get older. I had a great time in Israel. There wasn't as much fighting as people want you to believe. There was some stuff that went on while I was there. We couldn't goto the Jordan one day for some reason. I was there in 1993, and 1996. So like 11-12 years old during the first trip, and 14-15 years old for the second trip. I didn't ride a camel while I was there. I didn't go in the Dead Sea. Wasn't scared, just didn't want to get all slimy, and be in the heat. OH! I did have one REALLY embaressing moment while I was there. We were supposed to goto the Cultural Center, but ended up at some kind of night club. It was packed, people from all over the world were in there. There was a stage right in the center of the room, prolly 15 feet by 15 feet. Keep in mind that I was only 11-12 at the time. I was a quiet child. IMAGINE THAT! But anyway, I had to goto the bathroom, and the only way to get there was across the stage, where the guy was singing. So I start crying, and my mom decides to take me across the stage to the bathroom. The guy just starts a new song, and has to stop as we go across the stage. The guy was all like, 'I have never seen a woman cry because she has to go to the bathroom.' Then, I wished the earth would just swallow me up. Now I wouldn't care. It was just super embarassing at the time, because I was so young and there was sooo many people. Everyone laughed.
It's in Kentucky,USA. The authorities already know. The alpalacian people are poor, and grow it on national wilderness land. They have formed some of the most potent strains, it said on the show I watched.
Ich bin einen Amerikaner. (entschuldigung, my grammar is horrible. All the accusative and dative stuff I failed at in high school) But yeah, from Upstate New York. Not much about culture, we tend to celebrate our own immigrant ethnicity with various festivals, like the German festival (drink beer!) and the Irish festival (drink GREEN beer) and the Ukrainian festival (drink...I dunno, vodka?) And yeah, we're all fire-breathing liberals. And most people drink and smoke pot a lot. Though, I'm a bit of a straight-edge, so I don't. No pollution of the mind, doncha know?
