Dawn:
1. Honk, honk, beep, beep. Hey, you…!
A Pakistani driving license may not hold in India. But rest assured that a Pakistani’s road sense, cultivated through decades of weaving in and out of chaotic traffic, is exactly what one needs to be a great driver in India.
You are free to push, shove and honk your way to your destination, not to mention the abuses you can hurl at uncanny fellow drivers. The best feel-at-home experience, however, would be to pick up a fight with someone who has dared to trample over your ‘road ego’. You can simply play by your personal rule book and I assure you, no one would notice that you are a foreigner.
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Hell of traffic – a view from Paradise biryani in Hyderabad
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This is not a parking lot and the traffic is moving, believe me.
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Equality on road – everyone has the right to use equal areas of all roads, including pedestrians, bikers, buses and cars.
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2. Sweet tooth
India and Pakistan got rid of a foreign ruler together in 1947 and Muhammad Ali Jinnah refused to share the first Governor General with India. But we both still bow to the same local king, His Highness the Mango.
Some additions or omissions at an Indian fruit stall may surprise you (pleasantly), but the urge to indulge yourself while standing right there is pretty much the same.
You can even relate to all those coffee table talk, (or God forbid) pub chats attempting to prove that your favorite variety of mangoes is the only one with a blue-blooded lineage. If someone is all praise for Alphonso, don’t ask where he or she comes from, instead ask them:
“Aren’t you from Mumbai?”