Stop laughing! It's rude!

Time flies. It has been a year since we started living in Pune. And so many things happened from our first week in Pune up to now. I am getting used to life in here. I even started to enjoy myself. But there is one thing I will never get used to: people pointing at me and laughing. I usually get stared at and it was not a surprise because I knew that staring was common in India. Therefore, I do not mind it that much unless the person does it for a long time, at which point, I glare back. But what is most annoying, is when people just point at me and start laughing. The girls usually giggles and have the decency to just talk about me in a hush hush way ( but I still know). The men are more obvious, but the kids are blatant. Once I passed a group of school kids my older son's age. They saw me and just exploded in laughter, pointing at my face. I went up to them and used the little Hindi I knew to ask them what was wrong. They looked at me almost terrified and stopped immediately. One of them dared to answer " nothing Mam!". I went my way not even looking back.
 Unfortunately it was not the only time. Every time I go out, people will stare and point and laugh. I am not sure as to why. I get that they may have not seen many Africans walking around but it could not be because of my skin color. Some Indians here are darker than me. Is it the way I dress? I admit, it is a bit different from what people are used to, but it is in the least shocking for I try to be as modest as possible. I really do not know why.
 But one thing I am sure of, depending on my mood, if I see you laughing at me, I will either laugh back, glare at you or ask you what is the matter.
 I lived in many places, and traveled a lot, but I never experienced something like this. Even in Japan, back in 2000 when people were not used to seeing many Africans, I was never laughed at. People stared but they tried to do it in a such a subtle way, you barely noticed. And the most courageous ones would come up to me and ask me questions. I welcome that attitude. People are different. For sure if I was living at home ( never been to India) and I saw an Indian woman walking down my street in Dakar, wearing a Sari, I would look at her, and I would hold the urge to go talk to her for there would be so many things I would want to ask her. I am curious and I understand that my being in Pune would raise some questions. But do not laugh because it is just rude. Come to me, and ask me questions. Some people did and I answered, sometimes they did not even speak proper English but it did not matter to me. I tried with the little Hindi I know to answer.
Anyway, that is just another rant about life here. By the way, this is what I wore and got laughed at at least twice or three times today in Pune. 



A little bit of manly, a little bit of girly and a touch of bad-ass!


Scarf - Big Bazaar
Shirt - thrifted from Hubby and pimped ( check how here)
Dress -thrifted
Shoes - Head over heels via Westside







So, what do you think? Did I dress so poorly people had to laugh? Or am I just too sensitive?

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