Originally Posted by Turbohot

LOL.

I have tonnes of ornaments from around the world from my travels. Nothing tat, all intricate and stable. I'm sick to death of the Indian handicraft (although I'm a fan of the top quality artistry behind them) and my favourite ones are African old stuff I have, although not as intricate as the Indian ornaments. I have some awesome African tribal masks.

On your rickshaw wallah's experience, you'd never get hospitality like that here. If you buy a spark plug for some taxi man here, maximum he'd do is that he'd promise to buy you a pint sometimes! But when he clock him in the pub, he'll either ignore you or say- "Hi mate, do I know you??" Or "Cheers for that spark plug mate, I owe you one " and that's it!

In UK weddings, they call you to make them feel special on their special occasion but expect you to take a gift as a rule, of their choice. You go out, everyone goes either Dutch or keeps it all calculated with 'turns'. Most people like to live behind closed doors and don't trust one another. Despite the dirty toilets and all the chaos, human-to-human bond is stronger in India.

Originally Posted by ditchmyster

.....it's the same out here.