The 7 Deadly Desi Sins

The 7 Deadly Desi Sins


Christianity condemns the 7 deadly sins of Pride, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Lust,
Gluttony and Sloth. But we have our very own desi set of demons to battle
with!

False formality

Why is it that every time someone offers us something to eat/drink our
automatic reaction is no, thank you? It's true! Think back to all the times
your host offered you snacks, or a second helping of dessert - "No, Thank
You" is the prompt reply even though you might be dying to stuff your face
with one more gulab jamun

The same goes for when an older relative gives you money on festivals or
birthdays - no matter how broke you are and that money could probably bail
you out of a life-threatening situation - the answer is still a polite no.

The funny thing is that all we need is a little prodding and voila! The
dessert plate (or purse) is full again.

Fibbing

Few have mastered the art of fibbing as well as we Indians have. 'kaam ho
jaayega', 'haan haan zaroor aayenge' , 'will be there in five minutes' are
just some of the white lies we pepper our conversations with on a day-to-day
basis.

The fibbing is so intrinsic that when the plumber says he'll be there at 3,
you know he won't turn up before 7. Or when the vegetable vendor claims the
lauki is fresh, it's probably 3 days old.

Why just blame individuals though, the government itself subjects us to the
biggest organised tall-tale session of them all - Elections.

Bad manners

The extent to which we incorporate bad manners in our everyday life is so
deep that we don't even consider them to be rude.

Cutting in line is one such habit. Try standing in a line (if it exists) at
a McDonalds counter. Not only will you have at least 5 people cut before
you, they do it so blatantly that you start wondering whether you're the one
who's cutting instead of them!

Spitting and urinating in public is almost like a birthright for most
Indians. Sometimes it happens so unashamedly that you feel more embarrassed
than the spitter or urinater themselves! The same goes for scratching
private parts openly.

Staring and pointing is like second nature to us. Not only do we not
discourage our children when they do it, we make sure that anyone who doesn'
t fit our idea of a 'normal human being' gets the dose. The victims include
but are not limited to people who are overweight, disabled, dressed
differently, of 'other' sexual orientation.

Disregard for time

Procrastination, laziness, showing up late, arriving unannounced - it's all
a basic disregard for ones own as well as other people's time.

A flexible attitude towards deadlines is one of the worst things we're
taught from the beginning. "I'll speak to your teacher," is a common
reassurance mothers offer their indolent children who haven't finished their
homework. Even in offices, soft targets like internal presentations are
hardly considered sacrosanct as they are in other parts of the world.

IST - Indian Standard Time is a well-known phenomenon the world over. You
call someone over at 8, they show up at 10. It doesn't matter if the
entertainment they hired is paid by the hour or that the appetisers will be
obsolete since it'll be dessert time by the time the guests finally arrive.

But why just blame guests? We do it ourselves don't we? 'I don't want to be
the first one to show up' or 'We told them we had to go to another party
before theirs' are common excuses we cook up.

Plagiarising

You can't dissociate India with Bollywood. And with plagiarism as its
foundation (even the name Bollywood is a rip-off of Hollywood!) the entire
Hindi film industry is a manifestation of our rip-off tendencies.

But it's not just limited to films. Several of our business ides like the
ongoing mall mania and imax theatres are direct lift offs of phoren ideas.
There is nothing original about them.

We also copy their fashion trends (and conveniently ditch our own), slang
words and abuses, cuisines, heck we even copy their problems and crises like
incessantly worrying about loneliness and depression - hello! We live in a
country with a population of over 1 billion! You can't be lonely if you
tried!

One-upmanship

Although 'keeping up with the Jones'' is a concept that exists in the West
as well, it was probably invented in India! Competing with neighbours over
who has the bigger car, better house, fancier vacation or brighter child has
been an age-old fixation in India.

The one-upmanship transcends into more obscure territory like taking credit
for other people's ideas, being aggressive and unreasonable just to show we
are right and even in important issues like the person we marry (my fiancé
has a double major!)

Double standards

Where does one begin! We drop our pants at the first opportunity for sex but
expect our wives to be virgins. We complain about how dirty the
neighbourhood is but promptly dump the garbage outside. We scoff at the
saas-bahu serials but they have the highest TRP ratings.

We bitch about how our parents are so old-fashioned that they can't
understand your male friend is only a friend but swiftly change tracks and
jump to our own conclusions when we see two people of the opposite gender
together.

We profusely thank our hosts for a lovely evening but the minute we're out,
the gossiping and criticism begins. Belittling others is usually a defence
mechanism to cover up ones own flaws which is basically what double
standards are all about.