Things I miss from India #3

3. Making friends right away:

Back home, you have so many friends - I mean not just your colleagues, school and college friends: The flower girl who comes every evening to sell you flowers, the milkman, your apartment's watchman (who was a nuisance bringing you useless posts hurriedly just because it was delivered to him), your daily auto-wala, the beauticians and barbers you visit every month, the chai bhaiya who gives you an extra-strong ginger tea, the sales girls of boutiques who show you latest collections based on your likes and dislikes, your regular restaurant owner who serves you discounted food, the medical shop boys who home-deliver medicines right after a phone call, your acquainted tailor who sews perfect clothes for you, etc etc., The list is simply endless. I never realized they would even matter - when I was back in India or so I thought ...  making friends comes easily in India.

Once you are outside, you understand that it is not so in other countries, definitely not Germany. In the first months of my living in Germany, I was bewildered when - practically anyone you see - greets you with a wide smile on their face and a hearty Hallo! Good morning! or a Good day! Who does that? Next, they have their short conversations, and leave you then and there. Is it their 'I don't care' attitude or 'That's her personal zone' - thought? Either way, they just don't want to associate with you, let alone being friends. Hmm .. as I write this, I ponder if I should consider my very few Germans I know, as acquaintances - or 'friends'.