It happens every now and then in public transport. Pretending to be oblivious to your surroundings, you feel the countless eyes staring at you without a blink. Even in a cosmopolitan megacity like Delhi, a foreigner remains a novelty to be ogled shamelessly. As it is the Indian man that always stares, for women it is a constant source of discomfort. Despite the gender advantage, the staring used to give me a sense of unease for a long time as well. You feel it in the back of your head, you turn around and the man doesn't stop, puzzled by the situation, you stare back, not an eye blinks. You get annoyed and ask "Can I help you?", the man sheepishly turns his head and shrugs. You remain puzzled. What do they want from me?
For a long time I tried to find an explanation to this phenomenon, but so far my hypothesis has been that staring at foreign people is just timepass (to use an Indian English expression) for bored commuters. That mixed with a pinch of creepiness, if the target is of the opposite sex. Furthermore, since Delhi is an exponentially growing city with a constant flow of migrants from small villages in search of work, it is increasingly becoming inhabited by people who have very rarely if ever even seen other ethnicities. Some may be just plain curious and oblivious to their intrusiveness, while others are blatantly lecherous. It seems that many Indian men do not see anything offensive about the staring, rather it's a given almost. A different face is to be stared at, because it is different. Obviously.
Another phenomenon linked with the staring in public transport is one I call the Interview. Every so often, someone gathers the courage to come and talk to you. This would generally be considered small talk, idle chatting to pass the time. However there's a certain type amongst Indians that has more straightforward approach to talking to strangers. They emerge out of nowhere, bombard you with questions about your personal life and disappear as quickly as they came.It's as if these people were some secret government run operation to gather information on foreigners in the city. Generally small talk includes reciprocation, participation from both parties to the conversation. However, the Interviewer merely nods and replies with a bland "ok" to every answer. This leaves you with sense of being interrogated. As if the man was merely interested in collecting information from you about you, not so much to actually have a chat.
One of these approached me on the metro the other day. On my way from work, I was standing in the metro with my headphones on. A man of maybe mid twenties to early thirties tapped me on my shoulder: a young, thin software engineer type with tightly buttoned shirt and trousers pulled all the way up as high as possible.
"Excuse me sir. So which country do you basically belong? What are you doing in India? You work for which company? How long are you staying here? How long have you been? How do you find India? I've been to Europe many times. Your culture is more liberal towards intoxicants and sex, yes? I know, I've been to Europe many times."
The interrogation went on for a good 10 minutes, and the man kept going on how in the west moral values are more liberal towards sexuality and drugs. He kept repeating this with a straight face, from which it was impossible to interpret neither admiration nor contempt. It seemed that he was merely stating these things. Usually the Interview ends with a forced exchange of numbers and a subsequent series of awkward text messages from the Interviewer, where he keeps asking how I am. Before this managed to happen, my stop came, I wished the man a good day and jumped off the train. He disappeared as soon as he had appeared. On the metro platform the announcer reminded the commuters: "Please, do not befriend any unknown person."
