A Month's Experience of Culture Shock

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A month’s experience of culture shock
As I stood before the mirror I could not believe my eyes! I looked so different with
small curls, tattoos and beaded junk jewelleries including horse nails. Most importantly my
skin was dark brown now and my eyes had dark circles around. It was a fancy dress
competition in school and I was dressed as a tribal. I was thrilled to do some steps of the
tribal dance, which I had one watched on television. Cultures, customs and rituals have
always interested me. From here comes my love for travel. Going by a formal definition,
Culture is a way of living which comprise of language, rituals, religious practices, aesthetic
and moral values. For every culture these components combine such that each is
distinguishable from one another. We often understand geographical locations from an
individual’s way of living, especially food and clothes. Certain cultures might bear
similarities as well. This is true in case of neighboring nations. Chinese and Japanese people
look and eat almost similar. Geographical distances determine cultural differences. One
cannot count the exact number of different cultures. But one can safely say there are several
of them. Visiting different parts of the world helped sailors like Columbus to learn about
these different aspects. People often passed on stories and narration from one generation to
another. I had heard stories of the aboriginals living in America since the colonial period and
their involvement in Voodoo and black magic based rituals always interested me. This is not
because I wanted to learn them but it was more like a curiosity to know them better and find
reason behind their lifestyles.
Last year an Indian friend of mine invited me to her birthplace, a village in Orissa,
India. She had come to study in the US and I met her while working for a part time job in a
restaurant. As I studied in the maps it is an entirely different continent, Asia. I felt both
excitement and nervousness about what I would face there. But I knew my friend Suniti and

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trusted her. So I decided to accept her invite and designed a month’s trip. My mother was
initially apprehensive but after talking to my friend they were also excited to learn about the
new place from my visit. After reaching Delhi, we had to take the local flight to
Bhubaneswar, capital of Orissa. I saw old pieces of architectures with dome like tops all over
the place as we travelled. I knew nothing of the languages people spoke there. It was
scorching climate of June. I came to know from Suniti that the state was very religious and
staunchly Hindu. The people believed mainly in one God, Lord Jagannath and the district of
Puri where she stayed had an entire industry centring their Lord. She lived in a joint family
where women wore traditional wear, saree. My friend already changed into her traditional
India wear, salwar suit after reaching the airport. The best thing I found about the place was
the refreshing and awesome ocean, Bay of Bengal. I found people bathing in sarees draped
around themselves and men in shorts. Some women were in some western outfits but unlike
our beaches in the US none were in swimsuits. However from the moment I entered Suniti’s
place, it was as though all my privacy was robbed. I do not mean to say the people were bad,
in fact they were great with their hospitality but they stared at me, my dresses, accessories
and even my hair as if I was from outside the planet. Suniti’sfamily was well educated as they
could converse in English with an Indian accent. But when they spoke among themselves in
Oriya language which in fact appeared to me like some designs in writing, I felt like an
outcast. Their food was spicy and I had to take lots of water and felt sick in the stomach
initially. Later they cooked separately for me on Suniti’s suggestion. I was treated mainly
with rice, dal, chapati, and fish as my regular meal. Meat was not allowed for religious
reason. The biggest shock I received was when I was Suniti and I visited the Lord Jagannath
temple of Puri and I was not allowed inside because I was not a Hindu. This is something
which I could not really accept. Suniti also did not enter because she could not leave me
outside alone. People in their local language mentioned that they I could rather visit Iskon,