audio driven indians

A few weeks back, I was sitting on a friends motorbike when we had to stop and wait at a railway crossing as a train was about to pass through that junction. While we were waiting there for the train to go and the jam to ease, we were looking around and at people all around us. A pretty lady sitting on a neighbouring bike caught our attention. My friend told me she was imported(foreign, Irani to be specific). I did not agree with him because she didn't look non-Indian. But later as the train left and the traffic started moving, I was proved wrong. The traffic started moving and with the sounds of honking and vehicles allover, the lady plugged her ears with her fingers and got highly irrate. If she were Indian, she would've been used to it as we were. And believe me, as per Indian standards, the noise was nothing close to noisy.

We Indians come across as noisy or to be a bit harsh, even audacious. It may sound harsh but it is an inevitable part of our culture. The very foundation of our culture of civilization is the "Aum" which is a collection of all the cosmic sounds. Our celebrations are also very noisy. The thrill of Diwali, the festival of lights is the noisy crackers.We like lighting the noisiest of crackers to satisfy our audacious egos. And if there is a marriage in the neighbourhood, God save the neighbours with the noisy and sleepless weeks before the marriage because the brides or grooms family is celebrating.

Our metros are amongst the noisiest cities in the world. Our days start by the noise of the garbage collectors and the blaring music of neighbours loudspeakers. Then, the streets have "vrooms" of bikes and noisy vegetable vendors and pushcarts in store for us, apart from the noises at places of worships, the temples and mosques. After a noisy day, we plan to retire to our beds just to hear the tunes of latest bollywood numbers playing from cars reversing. And then when it's finally time to sleep, the watchmen makes their presence felt by tapping their sticks and blowing their whistles. There is no way you can get away from noise in india. If you feel running away on an open road can get you any far, you won't be too glad to find out truck bumpers which read HORNS PLEASE OK!!!