Barely civil? That's us!

I am neither Indian from India nor a Native American "Indian" but I can say this. Here is the US there are places where people are boorish and inconsiderate and other places where people are just the opposite. It is not universally true that people in large cities have more of a tendency to be loud and rude than people in outlaying communities, but in general, small town dwellers tend to live life at a slower pace and to take time to look one in the eye and say "thank you." However, because of a job, for about 15 years I was living in two different states, traveling back and forth between two towns that had roughly the same population, and every trip required readjustment because in one of the towns the clerks in stores would remember us and ask when we got back and how we were doing before taking the money and then say it was good to see us again and to come back when they handed up our receipt. Then the other town, they would not even look us in the eye much less offer a civil greeting. The towns were about the same size, but the polite town was out in the country with no other town around for 25 miles, and the rude town was very cosmopolitan, with 5 other small towns pressed up against it and very high density. So possible it was not so much a matter of how many people lived there, but how close they were to one another. When I shop in a store or use a service in this country, however, it is very noticeable that people from certain other countries (I can think of 5 or 6 of them off-hand) are extremely rude in how they perform customer service compared to any natural born citizen. Many kinds of telephone customer service here have been outsourced to various other countries and it is not difficult to tell from the syntax and accent who is from where. It has been my experience that out of hundreds of calls fielded by reps from India, I have only spoken with one phone rep who was what we would call civil here in the States. That is on the phone, though. I have worked side by side with several people from India and with people from a couple of the other countries that seem to have bad phone reps, and in person they were kind and gracious and polite. So I can only conclude that it is something about how the workplace is set up and the expectations of management in these different places, rather than the personalities of the workers themselves. I have met and even waited on a lot of tourists and have never experienced a rude Indian tourist.

I do not know about how they act in India, but in the US the people I have met from India are usually well mannered and quiet people, very respectful. There are rude people everywhere, as well.

I cannot speak for others Sandhya because I have nver ever gone out of this country.As far as I am concerned I thank autodrivers regularly and am as civil I can to all people ;but I find that people are different in a small town than what they are in cities.From what I have heard of stories from my relatives staying abroad , I have found that helping tendencies and humane behaviour is greater in I ndia than abroad because there in cities people just do not have time for one another.I find thta this is true in our metroplois here too.

Hi SV...I was born and brought up in Kerala,but I must admit my convent education has always taught me to be civil and kind to people and I do always thank the waiters in restaurants and other people who extend their help to me...Any way I have not seen this article ,but do not agree with what is mentioned there.......Most educated Indians are civil and polite to fellow Indians and to foreigners.....But there are surely to every rule and it is not right to genaralise based on such exceptions.....

Hi SViswan, it may be true. As to me, I am quite polite with auto drivers, unless they behave offensively. Shouting on street, I have never done it, but may be that is because I never needed to. I have never thanked the waiter at any restaurant - that would look weird. But in general, the waiters are pretty discreet. They leave the bill and wait for us to leave for picking up the tip. So it is difficult to thank them I suppose.

I have learned never to trust on any article in any newspaper. Yes, you get rude and boorish people, but that is all over the world. To just say that only one does it, is unfair. But, i tend to ignore such ignorant people. It doesn't bother me at all. TATA.

Well, I want to a face-off with the writer of the article! Okay, I agree with you in the fact that we Indians are generally loud and inconsiderate - but not all! If the foreigners think they are much more civilized than us, they are making a mistake and they are bringing a superiority complex over us. Well, Indians nowadays go abroad to study in reputed and renowned universities and schools, yet we still earn the title - Bloody Indians! I am not blaming anyone, but rather we have option but to blame ourselves! Have you seen a fight in the Korean or the Japanese parliament? Do you think the Bikers who are born to ride are civilized? Is eating stale food like pizza, burger civilized? Is coloring your body and calling them a trend civilized? Is wearing tattered jeans civilized? Is smoking and killing civilized? Well, they call us uncivilized as we blindly follow them! Well, our own countrymen are dissatisfied if one shows a sign of gratitude, consideration and kindness!!!