Personal space issues

Yesterday we decided to hike up to the top of a small peak overlooking the town of Pushkar. It was a pretty straightforward climb up steps that have been built to accommodate all the pilgrims that head for the temple at the top of the peak. It took us a while to get to the top because we kept getting stopped by groups of Indians who wanted to take photos of us. Well, they mainly wanted photos of Sarah, but they let me be in a few too. It's interesting that they find us exotic enough to want photos.... I guess it goes both ways, since Indians are so colorfully dressed and look pretty exotic to us, too. They are just better at asking without embarrassment for a photo.

We finally got to the top and walked past the temples a little further up the ridge to where we could enjoy the views without people trying to sell us stuff, beg money from us, or simply staring. We walked past trees full of langurs (long-tailed monkeys) and up the ridge. Of course, there were a bunch of men lounging around behind the temple and when they saw us, we became the most interesting thing to happen that day. Lots of staring ensued. So we walked further along the ridge and out of their sight to enjoy the day. Sure enough, three of them followed us up the ridge. We weren't particularly worried about being robbed or anything, since they seemed pretty benign, but it's hard to relax or have some personal time when you are constantly being watched. The men came up to us and wanted to try my binoculars. I already knew they were interested in them, so I let them look through them. Pretty soon, the rest of the men from below had followed along and we had 15 men all watching us, trying the binoculars, and asking us questions in Hindi. Though I'm sure they were perfectly harmless pilgrims, but I don't think they realized that they were making two foreigners very nervous with their closeness and interest.

It's a very different cultural norm here, the issue of space. There are a lot of Indians, and they live very closely packed in cities. The idea of personal space is completely different, especially to our American standards. Once they started asking us about money (I think they just wanted to see some US dollars), we got really nervous and made an excuse to leave or at least get back by the temple. Even then, they didn't realize the anxiety they were causing us. They followed us back to the temple, and then a long way down the stairs....

There was never any sort of aggression or deception on their part -- they were just interested in us. But it certainly made us uncomfortable! Well, I guess that's why we travel, eh? To expand our cultural horizons. =)