Interpersonal Skills Stack Exchange
Interpersonal Skills Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [india]

Questions that have a specific focus on people in India, or Indian culture.

Some questions require answers that may be specific to a certain region and so this is when this tag (and also other location tags such as or ) should be used. When using this tag it is presumed that the culture/situation reflects that of the average Indian person.

This tag should be used along with other tags that describe the situation which you find yourself in (such as ).

118 questions
104
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14 answers

How can I get someone to say their first name without letting on that I've forgotten?

I often face the problem of forgetting the name of a person who I last met a while ago. This can lead to an awkward situation when asking what their name is. How can I elicit them to say their name, without letting them know that I've forgotten?
A J
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90
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10 answers

Is it rude to wear a sari as a westerner to a wedding in India?

I am a Canadian woman and I will be attending a wedding in India in January. There will be Indian and Canadian people in attendance. I was wondering if it is rude (or expected) to wear a sari to the wedding. The two disrespectful situations I am…
kem
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87
votes
8 answers

How to reject a proposal from a close friend?

I have been friends with a girl at work for more than a year. I have always seen her as a friend and I am pretty sure I never did anything to lead her on. I am going to switch jobs in a couple of months. I told her this a month ago. From that time…
Procrastinating Programmer
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81
votes
22 answers

Is it rude to ask tourists where they are from?

“So… Where are you from?” It's normal small talk for us, most Indians; and only general whereabouts is expected. In my tours in India, I've met some foreigners along the way, usually western. I welcome them, offer assistance, and often have small…
NVZ
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76
votes
10 answers

Friend keeps making jokes about my ethnicity which are not funny

My parents are from India, but I was born and raised in the Netherlands (which is where I still live). I am in university and a friend keeps making jokes about the fact that I am of Indian descent. The problem is, the jokes are simply not funny.…
Q.Q
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61
votes
7 answers

How to ask for a wish from a woman?

For context, I am a twenty-four-year-old man. Recently I made the acquaintance of a woman who is twelve years older than myself. I was instantly struck by her extreme beauty and made efforts to form a bond with her. A few days ago she made a bet…
user14251
55
votes
18 answers

How can I convincingly communicate to a friend that I don't have a 'personal' mobile number?

I dislike telephone communication in general, compared to face-to-face interactions. I am not interested in communicating with anybody with mobile phone, for socialising or professional purposes. I work from home now and am near-constantly reachable…
English Student
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53
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10 answers

How to tell a colleague to not drink water from my bottle

So I have a water bottle in my office and to fill it every time is a tiring business. I need to walk to a different floor than I sit and then I need to wait till other people fill their bottles. Then after filling it, I need to come back to my…
Peaceful
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43
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8 answers

A server in a restaurant got offended when we addressed him as "Uncle"

I am from India and my experience is that addressing a serviceman in a restaurant as "waiter" is not taken positively. So depending on their age, we usually call them "brother" or "uncle". A few years back, I was visiting Germany and at one point, I…
Peaceful
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42
votes
6 answers

How do I approach the issue of someone reading what's on my phone when I'm on public transportation with them?

This is a problem which I face when I travel using public transportation. I have a habit of checking my messages, call data or Stack Exchange stuff that I missed and other social media stuff while I'm travelling using public transportation.…
Nog Shine
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39
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3 answers

I'm in marketing in a team whose name sounds too much like mine. What to do when introducing myself?

Let's say I'm in a small team called Adhyan, and my name is Adhyan. (I've changed the names for privacy.) There's no correlation, and I happened to join this team because I wanted to learn a topic that they specialise in, no other reason. When I…
Abhigyan
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35
votes
9 answers

How to stop someone from complaining about a third person in front of you without sounding rude?

I have been in situation where person X start telling me personal stuff about person Y and judging them for those things. It's plain complaining behind someone's back and I don't even know how much factual it can be. It might change my perspective…
Gauche
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35
votes
7 answers

How to respond to someone who wants to know my dark side and wild things that I have done?

I met a person online. Both of us 35. After some conversation, I asked him the kind of books he prefers. He told me that he reads dark books which I won't like. I guessed "crime/ghosts", he said no. Then I got curious to know what does dark mean and…
Aquarius_Girl
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35
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9 answers

How to tell a lady that she is doing wrong by inviting/feeding street dogs?

We, people of a multi-story apartment complex are fed up with this lady who calls herself a dog lover. She never takes steps to sterilize, vaccinate them, or arrange for their shelter or food. She only feeds them raw meat (leftovers), glucose…
paul
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33
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6 answers

How to politely ask people to pick up the litter they threw, especially if they don't own up

I live in India. As far as I know, littering is not much of a problem in other countries, but India has always been a place where even the adults teach their children: "Beta, yahin pe phek do, sabhi karte hain". (Go ahead and throw it here, as…
Abhigyan
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