The 7 Deadly Desi Sins

Christianity condemns the 7 deadly sins of Pride, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony and Sloth.

But, in India, we have our very own desi set of demons to battle with!

False formality

Why is it that every time someone offers us something to eat/drink our automatic reaction is no, thank you? It's true! Think back to all the times your host offered you snacks, or a second helping of dessert - "No, ThankYou" is the prompt reply even though you might be dying to stuff your face with one more gulab jamun. The same goes for when an older relative gives you money on festivals or birthdays - no matter how broke you are and that money could probably bailyou out of a life-threatening situation - the answer is still a polite no.

The funny thing is that all we need is a little prodding and voila! The dessert plate (or purse) is full again.

Fibbing

Few have mastered the art of fibbing as well as we Indians have. 'kaam hojaayega', 'haan haan zaroor aayenge' , 'will be there in five minutes' are just some of the white lies we pepper our conversations with on a day-to-daybasis.

The fibbing is so intrinsic that when the plumber says he'll be there at 3, you know he won't turn up before 7. Or when the vegetable vendor claims the lauki is fresh, it's probably 3 days old. Why just blame individuals though, the government itself subjects us to the biggest organised tall-tale session of them all - Elections.

Bad manners

The extent to which we incorporate bad manners in our everyday life is so deep that we don't even consider them to be rude. Cutting in line is one such habit. Try standing in a line (if it exists) at a McDonalds counter. Not only will you have at least 5 people cut before you, they do it so blatantly that you start wondering whether you're the one who's cutting instead of them!Spitting and urinating in public is almost like a birthright for mostIndians.

Sometimes it happens so unashamedly that you feel more embarrassed than the spitter or urinater themselves! The same goes for scratching private parts openly. Staring and pointing is like second nature to us. Not only do we not discourage our children when they do it, we make sure that anyone who doesn't fit our idea of a 'normal human being' gets the dose. The victims includebut are not limited to people who are overweight, disabled, dressed differently, of 'other' sexual orientation.

Disregard for time

Procrastination, laziness, showing up late, arriving unannounced - it's alla basic disregard for ones own as well as other people's time. A flexible attitude towards deadlines is one of the worst things we're taught from the beginning. "I'll speak to your teacher," is a common reassurance mothers offer their indolent children who haven't finished their homework.

Even in offices, soft targets like internal presentations are hardly considered sacrosanct as they are in other parts of the world. IST - Indian Standard Time is a well-known phenomenon the world over.

You call someone over at 8, they show up at 10. It doesn't matter if the entertainment they hired is paid by the hour or that the appetisers will be obsolete since it'll be dessert time by the time the guests finally arrive. But why just blame guests? We do it ourselves don't we? 'I don't want to bethe first one to show up' or 'We told them we had to go to another party before theirs' are common excuses we cook up.

Plagiarising

You can't dissociate India with Bollywood. And with plagiarism as its foundation (even the name Bollywood is a rip-off of Hollywood!) the entireHindi film industry is a manifestation of our rip-off tendencies. But it's not just limited to films.

Several of our business ides like the ongoing mall mania and imax theatres are direct lift offs of phoren ideas. There is nothing original about them.We also copy their fashion trends (and conveniently ditch our own), slangwords and abuses, cuisines, heck we even copy their problems and crises like incessantly worrying about loneliness and depression - hello! We live in acountry with a population of over 1 billion! You can't be lonely if youtried!

One-upmanship

Although 'keeping up with the Jones'' is a concept that exists in the Westas well, it was probably invented in India! Competing with neighbours overwho has the bigger car, better house, fancier vacation or brighter child has been an age-old fixation in India.

The one-upmanship transcends into more obscure territory like taking credit for other people's ideas, being aggressive and unreasonable just to show weare right and even in important issues like the person we marry (my fiancé has a double major!)

Double standards

Where does one begin! We drop our pants at the first opportunity for sex but expect our wives to be virgins. We complain about how dirty the neighbourhood is but promptly dump the garbage outside. We scoff at the saas-bahu serials but they have the highest TRP ratings. We bitch about how our parents are so old-fashioned that they can'tunderstand your male friend is only a friend but swiftly change tracks and jump to our own conclusions when we see two people of the opposite gender together. We profusely thank our hosts for a lovely evening but the minute we're out,the gossiping and criticism begins.

Belittling others is usually a defence mechanism to cover up ones own flaws which is basically what double standards are all about.