cultural surprise

Its been exactly a month since I moved to Houston from Cincinnati. Ironically, Cincinnati for all its Indian population studying at the University, has a very small Indian community outside campus and hence just a handful of Indian stores and restaurants.
Its not that I wasn't aware of the large indian hub in Texas, especially Houston. But from one fine day morning on you start seeing Indians....people from my part of the world everywhere from grocery stores to malls, from buses to streets......it was indeed a pleasant sight. As I was telling my cousin, even after a month, I still tend to stare whenever i see one on the road. And not to mention the number of Indian groceries and eateries.......the street named hillcroft near to my place is nothing short of a street just cut out from Mumbai or Chennai or Delhi and directly pasted in US.
I always wanted to be in a place with los of people and desired to be with a good indian population (call it my inability to adapt to US culture or homesickness or whatever!)......even though I know that I am gonna see indians all around the place, i still find it amusing to see my own race around me in plenty.....its a new kind of cultural shock for me....... reverse cultural shock.....the one you get on seeing your own culture in a foreign land!

AVS

6 comments:

Dilip said...

well that is good that you have found ample of indians in houston. Bay area is california is also very similar. probably from the tone of your post you may reconsider renaming the post reverse cultural surprise as opposed to shock !!!

Aravind said...

i wud say bay area is part of india itself....worse than houston :)
yes its a surprise than shock.....suggestion acknowledged

Jaya said...

San Diego isnt half bad... But you get to see sooooo many mexicans here that this is their Mexico almost and it being so close is varely any surprise! But Aravind.. Sounds like a blast da! Have fun

Aravind said...

we too hv mexiacans here...but i believe they wont be as predominent as in SD......u bet am hving fun...exploring restaraunts on weekends :)

Luckykid said...

Having a good time eh??

Aravind said...

not really yaar....loads of work load....but yeah no compromise when it comes to exploring the restaurants in houston :)