Australian reveals the truth about 9 years in India

Meet Glenn, a globally award-winning theatre director who moved from Australia to India 9 years ago. He shared with me his experience as a Westerner in Mumbai, the essential role of the black market in India, and why Indian boys grow up with a deep sense of intimacy towards each other. Enjoy!

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 INTRO
00:23 First Impressions of India
00:41 Language barierre
02:24 "That's Mumbai"
02:41 Black market in India
03:58 Taboo topics for foreigners in India
07:28 Maids in India
08:29 "3 things I miss from Australia"
08:58 Being a man in India
11:54 LGBTQ+ in India
14:39 Apartments in Mumbai
17:09 About Bollywood
18:18 Culture in Melbourne vs Mumbai
20:06 Working with local actors
20:42 About aging
22:24 The meaning of life

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[ramcool]

This is an honest interview. He said what he felt.
But as an Indian let me clarify that there is no concept of 'evil white man' in India. We hate Western media who are always hurtful and insulting towards us, despite that there are no specific emotions.
I also sense some kind of frustration, disappointment in his voice. Hope he will find more friends.

[Amuzic_Earth]

Just wanna add, most of the street markets are not black markets, they are what we call part of informal economy, they are connected to the formal economy through levels of distributors and sellers which makes things more accessible but slightly costlier, or in some cases directly to the producers in case of vegetables and meats/fish, which is great, we get fresh veggies or meats/fish at cheaper price. This is why in India, it's better to get wet food from local market and everything else from retail, if you wanna get more value for money. On the other hand, black markets are those, whose products have illicit or unknown sources, such as thieves market etc...and yes, they too have presence in India, although those are declining over the years.

[debasishraychawdhuri]

I am an Indian and not from a wealthy background. On my birthday each year, my mom would prepare payes, and khichri and lots of other stuff. Once I asked mom - "why do you celebrate my birthday so much? It's not that important that I was born", and she said "It's important to me."

[mangomate]

being LGBT was criminalized by the British in india and decriminalized by current government in 2018.

[devshetty]

India has mimimal black market, its informal market. Its outside ambit of tax. Its changing fast due to digital payments.

[happysoul]

It is not uncommon for a non-Indian to feel like an "outsider" in India, but as anyone with some understanding of the world will tell you, it is an universal feeling, not specific to India. You DO feel like an outsider in a place very alien to you. Has happened to me when I lived in countries other than mine.

Besides, how locals perceive and react to a foreigner also depends on how the foreigner in question reacts to the locals. My personal experience is that these things are highly reciprocal in nature. Positive people often find positive people. Negative people mostly run into negative people.

A white skinned single gay man in his late 40s/50s in India, he is likely very very different from average Indian perception of a man. And so he experienced. I found his experience pretty obvious.

[krishnaa]

As an Indian settled down in Australia, I can understand his perspective!!

All the best Glen!!.. take care and hope things work out for you!!

[nandinigupta]

India is somehow mirror to the world ..if someone is willing to blend its a beautiful inside feeling of fulfillment ..

[blackman]

17:41 i very highly disagree with this. We definitely love our songs and dances and its a bit unusual when there are no songs in a movie but it also depends on the genre of the movie and the theme. But certainly we aren't disappointed if there's a lack of dance numbers.

[kicksomeup]

My experience is a little different. If you learn the language of the region, learn to appreciate the food or at least certain dishes and learn at least a little bit about Indian culture, people in India will consider you Indian.

This is a big, diverse country, with hundreds of different religions and thousands of ethnicities and people everywhere look different. My uncle was married to a white Canadian woman and people in our community went out of there way to make her feel at home till the time my uncle and aunt both moved back to Canada after four years of living in India. We used to celebrate Thanksgiving day despite hardly anyone here knowing what it was and we used to decorate with French and Canadian national symbols(she had French ancestry). We loved our aunt, so we cared enough to find out what it was and how to celebrate it.

My aunt in turn was a great inspiration for me. She was not just respectful of our culture, she actively participated and asked questions about our religious gatherings. You could not but like the woman, and after a week of living with her, we didn't even think of her as someone from a different country, she was one of our own. My mom cried when my aunt had to leave with my uncle and my grandma gave her her most prized posession, her ancestral jewelery which she wore with much pride. My mom has a picture of my aunt in a saree from one of my cousin's weddings in her drawing room, alongside her daughters. That's what she is to her, apparently.

She continues to visit us twice each year, despite our Uncle having passed away 5 years ago. She maintains that we are her true family and we concur. Today, she has a successful legal practice in Canada and her and my eldest sister who graduated Harvard Med last year are an inspiration to my female cousins.

[babu_moshya_]

Coming to India with western context won't work. This gentleman did not speak about that baggage he had from his previous experience in Australia. That is great! Excellent interview!

[qfncpwr]

Very wholesome interview... No sugarcoating.. loved this.. "more years behind you than in fromt of you.. now is the most important thing in life" will stick with me for a long time.

[chinmaykamalapurkar]

As a gay indian we are much less discriminated as compared to others due to open minded belives in Hinduism ❤ indian muslims get the worst discrimination withing religion sadly😅

[pkn]

10 - 12 living under roof?? Is he really living in this age, in Mumbai? He is generalising a lot of stuff which is not factual. Clearly he hasn't moved around India much.

[RareDiamond-ceoo]

Indian cinema is not just bollywood. All South Indian cinema are on rise. So is ott content.. Bollywood has no formula. Its mere story telling. Songs and dance are not formula, it's part of Indian culture. We have many festivals and ceremonies which have song and dance, that's exactly what's shown in movies when those characters celebrate those festival, wedding etc.

[rudeus]

Showing Australia: best areas of Australia.... Whileshowing india: see slums😱👍

[Amuzic_Earth]

This guy has an unique perspective to things...definitely opened up some new neural pathways in my brain.

[presentatmystop]

Engaging conversation! Keep up the work you are doing:)

[silvershroud]

It was cute way he called Didi to his helper 😊

[DhTheEmperor]

Living for 5 years as a foreigner in Pune and I can agree to most things he said