Random Observations, Volume I

Burping occurs openly here. No one says "bless you" after someone sneezes, although my very devout Catholic coworker exclaims "Jesus!". Spitting is entirely common, although in some places there are signs forbidding it (because the betel and tobacco men chew leaves awful red stains).

My favorite public bodily function, by far, is the shooting of snot rockets. Men will just lean over the curb from the footpath (sidewalk), close off one nostril with a finger, and flush the contents of the other nostril out onto the street. Well, it saves trees from becoming tissues, that's for sure.

Every day on the way to and from the train I pass a restaurant called Cafe Gullistan, and I wonder if the name is a reference to Gulliver's Travels, as in another name for Lilliput, or if it's the land of the gullible.

2 of my favorite Indian-English phrases: "stop fucking on my face!" (leave me alone, back off), and "felicitate" (congratulate)- as in, "we're holding a ceremony to felicitate this year's prize winners."

Other translations:
flyover = overpass
subway = underpass
engaged = busy (phone)
keeping = feeling (are you not keeping well?)
I am= this is (introduction on the phone-- Hallo, is X home? I am Jocelyn)
staying = living (I stay in Santa Cruz)
pulses = legumes, beans, chick peas
veg= vegetarian
pure veg = no eggs (but not vegan, still includes dairy- this is for the Jains)
Some nouns don't need an article: office, hospital, college.
SCHedule
ASTHma
metro= city
pavement=street (pavement dwellers are the poorest of the poor, they literally sleep on street)
upmarket = what it sounds like, fool.