I am sure those who travel to India from USA, must have encountered these situations. Foremost is the driving on the left side and driving wheel on right side of the vehicles always baffles my son, so also the electrical switches working reversely.
During my India trip, especially on the initial days after my arrival, I have opened the door on the driver's side of car by mistake to invite a hearty laughter, sometimes a muffled giggle if the person observing my plight doesn't want to be impolite.
Using mobile instead of cell phone is another one. I always feel the mobile sounds more appropriate as you are immobile without a mobile phone these days. Once I left my house without a mobile and felt that as I have left my liver behind. It was akin to the wise monkey (of PANCHATANTRA fame) who faked to his Crocodile friend that he left his liver behind. In was a sweet relief when I got my cellphone (oops Mobile) back, no less sweeter than the sweet liver promised by the monkey which the Croc cherished.
Writing dates is another area I stumble upon. June 12th I write as 06-14 (which would be rather 6th December in India). That is because dates are written in DD-MM-YYYY format over there while in America it is MM-DD- YYYY format. Inadvertently I have wasted several checks for writing wrong dates on them. A simple mistake like this in a bank can cost you an additional unwarranted trip to go back to the line (oops it is Queue over there).
I had to mentally convert from Centigrade to Fahrenheit to get a hang of the heat, similarly convert kilometers to miles to make out the distance. Several years ago I was on a flight to Las Vegas. An American couple in front of me were struggling to convert from Centigrade to Fahrenheit. I did it for them in seconds using the classic formula C/5 = (F-32)/9. "Oh, you are a genius" - out poured their impromptu compliment. As if they encountered a Math wizard. I cherished my two minutes of fame.
You call Rose by any different name it's perfume remains the same. You call it 100 degree Fahrenheit, or 38 degree centigrade the heat feels the same. 100 miles is no less than 160 km. If what's in a name, what's in a Unit ?
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