Hitting you with some culture

For those of you not in the know, I work at Hewitt Associates (I still don't like calling it AON Hewitt) and a large part of the company is located in India- specifically Gurgaon. As a result myself and my team have a lot of counterparts in India. Sometimes these associates are allowed to travel to the United States and currently we have two associates, Taresh and Jitender here with us. As part of their customs, they always bring gifts (hey, no complains here). These are the lovely gifts that I received. First up, was the gift from Taresh (which he admits his wife picked out and wrapped for him). He told me that the building design with the window is what princesses have designed for them-- so heck if its good enough for a princess count me in. The gift was also wrapped in the local newspaper which I found fascinating. I couldn't read a single symbol (its symbols, not letters) and Taresh was telling me what the newspaper said. Super cool! The next gift was from Jitender. My naive butt asked him if the elephant represented anything and he had to explain to me that it wasn't just an elephant but it was a god in Indian religion named Ganesha. Clearly my world culture knowledge is limited! He explained that this god is who they worshop everytime they start something new and Ganesha keeps away the obstacles when embarking on a new journey. I thought it was perfect for me :)

I have also heard many stories about India-- all of which almost dying in the cabs/cars due to the insane traffic. Apparently no one there obeys any traffic laws, and they regard them as "guidelines". If you get pulled over you can just pay off the cop and go on your way.

The world Cricket games also took place about a week ago and India won, which is a VERY big deal-- like think the Superbowl on steroids.

I really like learning about other cultures and find it good to help expand my world views.