How similar are India and Bulgaria?
My hunt for finding similarities and differences between India and Bulgaria started on a very funny note. One of the evenings I was talking to my parents in India and my wife happened to hear me repeating the words KAKA and BABA. Now she couldn’t understand why I was talking about my grandmothers who are no more with us and my older sister when I have none. 😀 . За да прочетете статията на български, можете да инсталирате плъгин Google Преводач от тук.
Thus started a quest to dig deeper and try to find similarities in languages between the two countries.
Common words which seem to have same pronunciation
татко – Father – Tat (Sanskrit)
ананас – Ananas ( Duh – its pineapple) – (Hindi, Marathi)
баба (grandmother) – Baba ( father) – Marathi
кака (elder sister) – Kaka ( dads brother) – Marathi
брат – Brother – Bhratah (Sanskrit)
девeр – Husbands brother- Devar(Hindi)
Жива – (pertaining to a female, Jiv (Pertaining to a male) – Jiva (alive in Sanskrit)
Диван – Sitting bench like a sofa – Divan (Hindi)
Шатра – Shelter – Chattra (Sanskrit)
Приятен – Pleasant – Priyatva (Sanskrit)
Твърда – Pressing hard – Aarda (Sanskrit)
аз съм – To exist – Aasam (Sanskrit)
Късмет – By chance – akasmat (Sanskrit)
Дом – Home – Dama (Sanskrit)
Две – Two -Dve (Sanskrit)
Тъма – Darkness – Tamah (Sanskrit)
Захар – Sugar – Sakhar (Marathi)
My knowledge of Bulgarian is pretty limited, and I am sure there are many more words which the two countries share.
Cultural Similarities between India and Bulgaria
Like I had mentioned before, India has a nuclear family concept which I haven’t seen exist here. But the base of it all – The family values seem to be the same. I have seen some families where the kids stay with their parents until they are pretty grown up which is very common in India.
On top of that, caring for your parents in spite of not staying together is another thing which is very common. Visiting your parents, seeing to it that they have a comfortable life is something which is done without saying or asking questions. I may be wrong but this is what I have observed with the people who I have got to know over a period.
Indians and Bulgarians love to party. There are times when we don’t even need an occasion and friends are just a call away to have a drink or two together. I mean that’s how it begins and ends with a massive hangover and Shkembe Shorba in Bulgaria and a glass of yogurt in India the next morning.
The traditional embroidery is reminiscent of embroideries back home. The Swastika symbol is a holy motif in India and is a part of every household. A lot of people associate it with the Nazi swastika but one has to go deep in to history to understand what swastika means to Hinduism.
The food similarities are very uncommon but we do have a dish like Bop and the rice and milk sweet dish which we call Kheer.
Indians have a head nod and so do Bulgarians. The Bulgarian one threw me off guard when I first saw it. Since you move your head top down for a no and side to side for yes I was left totally confused. In India it means the other way around. But, the most common one in India is the nod in between both which can mean many things. For ex – Yes, no, ok, we will see, maybe, fine, not listening but whatever. The best part is it gains momentum when we are excited.:)
Differences between India and Bulgaria
- The food – The food here is good but way too bland for an Indian palette. In India even the smallest of the dish revolves around aromatic spices (read about Indian Spices). The spiciness and how hot the food is varies from region to region.
- We drive a right hand drive car on the left side of the road.
- Extremely friendly people. In India If you make eye contact on the road with a stranger it is normal to give a head nod. Unknown people on local transports or tourist places are seen talking like they know each other for ages.
- There is a concept in India called my local transport friend – People who take the same bus or train to work everyday. They will share food, play cards, sing songs, share personal details etc. Here I was on a local transport for two years, saw the same people everyday but forget about exchanging words there was not even a knowing smile exchanged.
- It might be the weather but in India the number of two wheelers outnumber the cars. You can even find girls zipping past you on motor bikes and mopeds like they are on a race track.
- We use only our right hand when eating. The reason is mentioned in another article :).
- Indian weddings are HUGE, the small ones will be around 250-400 people, large ones go to anywhere between 1000-3000 people. A few go even beyond that number.
- In India you will see boys holding hands and walking and no one will bat an eyelid. It doesn’t mean they have a different sexual orientation, It’s just that they are close friends.
- In India the normal way of greeting a lady is by folding your hands and joining them together and saying a namaste(hello), in cities it’s common to shake hands. Hugs are reserved for extremely close friends and family members. A kiss on a cheek is seen very far and wide once in a blue moon.
- Movie and sports stars are treated like gods, Some have their own temples built by their fans. I am sure you all have read the Chuck Norris jokes. Just google Rajanikanth jokes, trust me you won’t be disappointed.
- Not all Indians are vegetarians, about 25 % are vegetarian while the rest eat some form of meat.
- There are 8 main religions in India – Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and Judaism. The predominant one is Hinduism.
I hope you enjoyed the read.. Stay tuned for more 🙂
