Upon first moving to Hyderabad, we noticed immediately the staring of the locals. It seems that our white skin is quite the novelty here. In the beginning it was very disconcerting. Remember this post from October?
Secondly, as white people, we get stared at, a lot. In fact, we were told before we came that people would even want to take our pictures, and would sometimes even try to do it sneakily without you knowing. Well, it’s one thing to be warned, and another to experience it for yourself!
Then we began to get used to it.
Then we began to stare ourselves. "Ryan, look! There's a white guy!" has become a phrase I have found myself muttering more than once. If I see a white person in a restaurant, I watch them enter, sit down, wonder where they are from, if they live here, what they are doing here. All this while I stare at them, open-mouthed before suddenly realizing I should look away. But spotting a non-Indian residents is really quite rare! Granted, there is a sizable ex-pat community, but you have to really know where to look. There are very few white people just walking down the street. Hence, I have to stare.