In true macho style, I am writing to you tonight from the comfort of my own sofa, flat-out lounging with my laptop on my stomach (thank you 80s California elementary school system for teaching us girls how to type properly so we could grow up to become secretaries, haha) and…I am multitasking by watching RAMBO III on Star Movies. Is there anything more macho than Sly Stallone as hunky Rambo? I don’t think so!! And after living off and on in Spain for 18 years you would think that I would have seen every kind of macho-macho man around but it turns out that I still have a lot to learn 🙂
For me, at least so far, India is a wonderful dichotomy. A place full of diversity and traditions that I could never personally live with but love learning about. A place with the most MACHO of macho men. Yet also a place where those macho men turn pretty girly on a frequent basis and that is just A-okay for everyone. It’s fabulous, and no one seems to care.
Today’s blog post was inspired by a few of the Indian macho men in my life.
Virtually everyone in our company eats their lunch on the rooftop terrace cantina. I think that in itself is pretty cool on a few levels. First, I have never worked anywhere in the U.S. or Europe where we had an open air “penthouse” cantina, especially not one where everyone eats together, including the chiefs, executive and management teams. I don’t mean this in any way than how I am saying it, it is really cool. Aside from eating at my desk from time to time, I don’t even remember bringing my lunch to work more than a couple of times in 5 years. So this is again part of the new, fun life I lead in India. Well, today I was sitting down at “our” table along side five of my work mates. As always, I looked down to see what everyone was eating today and you will not believe what I saw!! My most macho work mate from here in Bangalore, (the one who says my style of dressing is “extreme” on the liberal scale) was eating his lunch out of a Winnie the Pooh lunchbox which I assume isn’t normally his, haha. And he wasn’t trying to hide it, he was pretty okay with today’s lunch box. We were all giggling, and he was having fun with it too, right along with us. As confident and macho as always even with his Winnie the Pooh lunch box 🙂
Rest assured, macho men are all over India, not just Bangalore. Last weekend when I was on my mini party weekend in Chennai I was cracking up laughing a couple of times following the antics of my dear macho friend there. We were out at Vivanta by Taj in Fisherman’s Cove, had just sat down to watch cricket and were placing our order for drinks at the pub with the waiter. I ordered a champagne julep (they are delicious, try one next time you are there!) and expected my mate to order beer or possibly even a mocktail given that he would be driving later. But oh no no no…. He didn’t go for anything I could have imagined in a million years. No draft beer, no juice or coke. What did he order? He ordered a Shirley Temple! haha A super pink, very cute looking Shirley Temple with a cherry! haha I was laughing so hard and then decided that I had to take a photo of it. As my mate grabbed the glass to have his first yummy sip of his super girly Shirley Temple he looked down at the coaster. The glass had actually made a smiley face imprint on the coaster 🙂 That was classic!!! See the photo!
Now on top of these couple of “cute” incidents with mates, I have a couple favorite random things that for me are very different, that in India are quite commonplace and NOT considered different at all. I have already mentioned my male colleague’s fabric handkerchiefs but this definitely deserves a mention here in the macho man post. Recently I also learned that a friend of mine belongs to a badminton club and that this is taken quite seriously as a sport too. At first I thought he was joking. I mean I used to play badminton in Georgia at my Grandparent’s place when I was a kid. And in my head this is an old-fashioned game for girls and boys on a lazy summer afternoon. But no no no….the macho men of India have changed the name to Shuttle (I think that was it, anyway) and have proper leagues and teams and clubs for it. To be honest, I remember having fun playing it so I totally get it 🙂 Go boys!!!
I guess that’s all for now, but with the unending quantity of raw material I have from the macho men of India, I will write down more macho man tales and come back another time with Part Two for you 🙂
XOXO from Bangalore
© Angela Carson, Angela’s Adventures in Bangalore blog and photos, 2011
The Smiley on the coaster! I would like to repeat that you are an observer and You have strong imagination!
Well, Indian Men, really show how Macho they can get once they are behind the wheel or in a bike.
Have you tired a ride with one of us Guys? Try it & you will start writing on it 🙂
I owned a RoadKing during my college days and was known for rash driving.
Well now with my laptop and other gadgets I have got into the shell or my Car.
Dare going on a long drive or a drive with in city, Will show you some Macho maneuvering.
During my stay at UK, I did showoff some of my driving and my English friends had their jaws dropping.
We are quite Macho in our own right!
hahaha nice! I will have my Indian driver’s license and car within the next 7 weeks and can’t wait to go have some fun around town!
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What a good laugh ! especially with the macho man lunch box !! How delightful India and Indian people can be !
Well, most of the things you find weird in western culture is not weird in India. You can’t find two grown-ass straight men holding hands in the public (even private) in Western countries. But it’s perfectly okay with Indians.
You can keep writing tons of such things about Indian men. It’s mostly to do with India than Indian men. Most of em are confident about their man-ness and hence ain’t so conscious to prove anything.
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there is no macho culture in kerala , west bengal. All these men are effiminate and feminine. The real macho men are from the following states.
1. punjab
2. Haryana
3. Rajastan
4. Jammu and kashmir
5. himachal pradesh
6. andhra pradesh
7. tamil nadu . These are the real men
and the most feminine and effiminate men are from these states in india are kerala , karnataka, west bengal, orissa ,assam,almost all north eastern states. These men are unfit to call themselves as men .
Wow…seriously? 🙁 I think this is the most insulting comment that has been made on my blog that isn’t personally about me. I find it interesting that you are cool generalising about entire states in India. I was born in California and I can’t imagine assuming that all of the men in New York or Colorado or Texas are all the same or all lack a certain quality. There is good and bad everywhere. Liberal thinkers and conservatives everywhere. You really need to re-think this…
Right- that’s why females have disappeared (or made to disappear!) from your macho top 3 states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan!
Absolutely agree with above comment 🙂
Just randomly came across your blog. I just couldn’t stop laughing reading this post. It definitely deserves part 2, 3, and so on. In fact after a few years may be you can even write a book on it.
Majority of Indian males do not care (much) about their Macho images. In Mumbai here notices many males, some of them my friends using not so MANly umbrellas during monsoon. I used to have a good laugh at them, and always used to pull their legs. But honestly in true sense some of them were really Macho. Chances are that your first impression about Indian males is not going to be complete if not outright wrong. They will even take their time(ranging from a few days to a few month) to open up.
There are many different Indias within India. So every statement one makes about India is going to be both right and wrong at the same time. In a crowded bus one can see both:a groper (as you mentioned in one of your posts) and a guy offering his seat to ladies or elderly people.
Looking forward to some more funny posts from you. Good luck with India and enjoy your stay here.