No Wonder People Stare at Us,We Stare at Us

A couple of weeks ago I went into Bangalore from Visthar. As I got closer and closer to the main streets like Commercial, Brigade, and MG I couldn’t help but to notice there was a ton of foreigners walking the streets. As I proceeded to stare at their pale white skin in a sea of brown I thought to myself no wonder locals stare so much at us when we all walk around in our group of near twenty, white skin sticks out so much here, and catches your eye almost immediately– even if it is just a group of two! At one point I was so impressed to see a couple on a motorcycle!! (They are so brave… and hopefully still living :] ) I found myself being genuinely curious as to what all the other white skinned strangers were doing here. Where were they from? Are they here on vacation? Are they with a church or another study abroad program?

Later that day, I got the answers to one stranger’s story while standing in front of a McDonalds of all places. There was a family from England that I struck up a conversation with, and they told me that they were now living in Bangalore for business purposes. After telling them what I was doing here as well, and an exchange of a couple extra friendly words, they proceeded to go into an antique shop and I got to thinking about our module. How India (especially in cities like Bangalore) is becoming more increasingly affected by development and globalization. How more and more foreigners are migrating to places like India to, if not start a company, at least influence and westernize already existing major corporations. Since that weekend I have noticed a few straggling westerners on the outskirts of Bangalore, but it seems the more and more times I go closer into the center of the city the more and more white skinned people there seems to be! From now on, I will try not to stare so much, but it is difficult not to be curious about the unusual and at times very familiar sights.