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Oh man. I could go on for days. Let’s start with a short list:Hoarding food. The ‘financially comfortable’ people I know hate leftovers. They see a big ol’ box of leftovers as trashy. Poor people will take any and every opportunity to put more food in their cupboards, even if it means eating soggy pancakes the next day. Calories are calories. Put that in my belly.Reverse dieting. When I was in my late teens and living at home, I dieted. I had some leftover baby/belly fat I wanted to be rid of, so I calorie counted and read nutrition labels obsessively and hit my goal in about two months. Nowadays, I use all that same knowledge, but in reverse. Extra butter here, extra mayo there, a couple more slices of cheese… anything to get a few extra calories into my diet.P.S. I get seriously irritated when people look at me eating a sandwich slathered with mayo and say, ‘gee, I sure wish I could eat like you. You got lucky genes, me, I just look at butter and I gain weight.’ All I see is someone who could get away with spending less on groceries.Tearing off the amount of paper towel you need. Financially comfortable people think it’s weird to tear off a corner of paper towel to clean up a tiny spill. That just makes it look tacky. Poor people think - yay! I still have 90% of this paper towel left. Bonus points for killing the environment slightly less.Hoarding napkins, condiments, and just really hoarding anything in general. Anything I hoard is something I don’t have to pay for later. (And I’m a minimalist. I hate owning knick-knacks and anything that’s purely decorative. If I can’t use it or eat it, it’s getting sold).Having little interest in decorative things. Continuing from the last point, decorations and ‘fun stuff’ that serves very little purpose is not only low on my priority list, it’s in the negative area. I don’t always know where I’ll be living next week and I don’t want to have to waste time or space filtering out the essentials I need to take with me and the non-essentials which are a problem for me to transport. I hate being in a tourist shop with financially comfortable people. They’ll be like, ‘oh, this is so you, you should get it,’ indicating like… a freaking magnet or something. NO. $6 will buy me rice and butter and bread or this stupid magnet… and junk piles up. Pretty soon you’ve got a whole box of junk that I have to do something with.Not going on vacation or family getaways. Man, have I ever turned down some requests to go with people on vacation - and regretted it when I didn’t. Staying on budget is hard enough when you’re at home, but at least there, you know where you’ll be staying, how much it costs to get to work, and know that you’ll be in charge of what you’re eating. Have you ever tried to be the weirdo who wants to buy groceries on vacation when everyone else will be going out to eat? Better yet, have you ever tried to talk a car full of people into dropping you off at the hotel so you can eat groceries while they’re on route from some vacationy activity to a restaurant? Thanks for making everybody go out of their way, a—hole. Just kidding, they don’t do that. You’re going to a restaurant you can’t afford with them.Not having a credit card. A lot of people talk about putting everything on your credit card when you’re poor. I refuse to get a credit card. If I’m out of money, I’m out of money. I’m not going to open a credit card just so I can go on vacation and spend the next three years paying it off.Doing socially absurd things. I once knew I was going to be in D.C. all day for an event. I bought a giant piece of chocolate cake ahead of time for like, 2 bucks. While everyone else was at the concessions stands, I whipped out that piece of cake I had stashed in my backpack. People gawked. People commented. But that one piece of cake lasted me all day.Not having a ‘fine-dining’ dress. I’ve learned the hard way that financially comfortable people not only assume that everybody has a dress specifically for a classy night out, but that everybody packs one for every vacation. Because you should always expect to eat above your pay grade, and dress for it, too.Lump that last one in with basically anything fashion related. Oh, my knock-off work pants make me look poor? Maybe there’s a reason for that…Not buying vegetables. Everybody buys vegetables these days! (Nevermind how many wind up in the landfill, but that’s another story for another day). I’ve actually had people lecture me on how they felt I wasn’t eating enough vegetables. Do you know how many calories are in a carrot? Almost none. Why am I going to spend money on eating almost nothing? Oh… vitamins, you say? Vitamins are a luxury.Buying low-quality items. Everybody knows that high-quality items last longer than low-quality items and you save more with them in the long run. That’s nice and all, but if I have $20 in the bank, I’m buying a $13 set of pans from Goodwill. Your $70 set can wait.Same goes for buying in bulk.Panic. Financially comfortable people don’t realize how many of their problems are solved by money.Don’t have anyone to take you to the airport? Just call an Uber! Pipe burst and your apartment’s flooded? Just stay at a hotel (they’ll reimburse you later). Overstayed at an event in a different city? Just eat at a restaurant.All of these things are panic-inducing when you’re poor. Everything is panic-inducing (aside from, say, not having a nice dress to wear) when you’re poor.Little problems quickly become big problems. Things that are little hiccups or inconveniences for other people snowball into catastrophes you’ll be dealing with for months, if not years.Compound that with other factors that might’ve led to you being poor in the first place, and you wind up living in a constant state of panic all the time. Panic in the morning (there’s so much I need to get solved today, tomorrow, next week… and I don’t know if I have the resources to resolve it), panic as you’re driving to work (if someone swerves into my lane, the car will be wrecked and I won’t have a way to pay for it or get to work tomorrow), panic while you’re at work (did the boss just give me stink eye? Am I going to get fired? If I get fired how will I make ends meet while looking for my next job?), panic when you go to bed… panic even while you’re dreaming after panicking while you were drifting off.Panic that gets layered on top of panic as time wears on, and new problems get lumped on top of old problems.FIRST EDIT IN YEARS - DECEMBER 2020Someone asked me a long time ago why I wasn’t making more money. After all - web designers make tons of money, right?The answer is due to personal issues. Namely, being crazy.I haven’t wanted to talk about it, really.It’s humiliating. It’s shameful.Recently, I hit rock bottom and had to face a lot of the things at play here. You can know something is wrong and still get stuck in your ways.If you’re interested, I wrote about it here: Schizophrenia: I Hope It’s Better for Future GenerationsBACK TO THE OLD EDITSAlright everybody… here comes the EDIT (based on some things I saw come up in the comments a couple times).The vegetables. Omg, the vegetables. I’m both delighted and a little flabbergasted by just how many of the comments were about vegetables.Here’s the thing - and the same reason I put it in a list about things that poor people do that make financially comfortable people scratch their heads —— poor people don’t make their decisions based on their health.In order to die early in your 60’s or 50’s, or whatever - you have to live through today, first. So, from that perspective, it’s kind of a win.So, poor people aren’t going to make decisions based on, “how do I live a long and prosperous life?” They don’t make decisions based on the long run. They often don’t even make decisions based on what they want.Much like Jay Bazzinotti said in his answer (Jay Bazzinotti's answer to What do the poor do that make financially comfortable people scratch their heads?): “Poor people live moment to moment. They cannot afford to plan for the future too much. They have to solve problems right now.”Let me tell you a story about that. I once went grocery shopping by searching everything I owned for spare change. I don’t have a couch, so there wasn’t any change in there. I do, however, own a metric f—-ton of backpacks (which double as moving boxes when the time comes). So I searched all those.I don’t remember how much I came up with, but I do remember that I went through all my receipts from my past purchases at the local Save-a-Lot (pretty sure that’s what it was called) and made a grocery list based on the prices I’d previously paid for things I frequently buy. I got it to within a dollar of the amount I had in my hand.So, off I go to the store (didn’t have a car at the time, so I got one of my many aforementioned backpacks and walked over). I bought exactly what was on my list and nothing more. I leave the store and am headed back home when I’m stopped by a homeless guy.The guy gives me his spiel (there’s always a spiel), and I thought: ‘d—n. It’s cold right now, but I’m headed back home, and when I get there, it’ll be nice and warm. That makes me a f—- of a lot luckier than this guy.’ So, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the remaining change I had and handed it over to him.He looked at the sorry pile of coins I’d just placed in his hand and was like, “ah man. Come on.” …and gave it right back to me. And I thought, ‘dang. Even the homeless guy has no use for the total sum of money I have.’So, yes. Vegetables are good for you. You should eat them. Yes, they’re cheaper than going to the doctor… but, when you’re buying your food with spare change, you’re going for protein and calories. Lots of eggs. Lots of rice. Yes - lentils are on the list, too, somebody mentioned that. And beans… all sorts of beans. That kind of stuff.Moving on.The Cake. A couple people commented on the cake. For the record, I don’t normally go around eating cake instead of food for a whole day. It was a weird case that made everybody else (ie: the financially comfortable) around me scratch their heads.Do you want to hear the story? I can tell you the story if you want me to.Credit Cards. I know having a credit card you’re responsible with is better for you perhaps especially if you’re poor. Couple problems with that: 1) when you’re buying groceries with pocket change, that credit card starts looking real tempting. It’s all too easy to say, “but I need vegetables. I’ll just put them on the card.” Then it’s, “but I need to go to the doctor sometime this year. I’ll just put it on the credit card.” When you’re poor, you’re not just living without things you want, like new TVs and… dresses? or whatever - you’re living without things you need. Things even the most frugal people would probably acquiesce is a reasonable thing to take out a line of credit for. The problem is: if I didn’t have the money for it today, I’m probably not going to have the money for it tomorrow.2) This is something that other people may be less susceptible to - pressure. I’m not Mother Teresa, I have flaws. One of my flaws is that I can be talked into things. Say someone asks me to go on vacation to spend time with family… if I have a credit card, I’m going to start to spiral. I mean… technically I now have the means to do so, right? Do I not care about my family? How will my young siblings feel if they found out that I could have gone to see them and chose not to. So, I’d probably go and put a vacation I couldn’t afford on credit. Now I’m paying that off for god knows how long.3) I’m going to restate number 1 here: If I don’t have the money today, I probably won’t have the money tomorrow, and that availability - especially for essentials, like food and toilet paper - is going to just start to look waaaaay too tempting.

I owned a Mercedes. Not paying much attention I drove to a Fuel station on turnpike. Fill it up please and paid no further attention. The service guy filled it up and I paid with credit card. New Jersey requires someone from station to operate fuel pump. Started car and drove off up turnpike. About a couple of miles I noticed car was sort of unresponsive. I was able to drive and also noticed smoke from exhaust. I pulled over on emergency lane and car wouldn’t idle. Tried to start it and it started but made a crazy noise and smoked badly. I knew then the service station guy put diesel in my gas car. How? The car had a left rear hit and run and gas filler also damaged. Diesel nozzle is very large and impossible to insert in a unleaded gas tank filler. A quick look and I saw a diesel wide fuel opening on my car. Seems because car was 8 years old the insurance approved used parts! I got pieces from a diesel wreck.I managed to get the car started and got to nearest exit. A gas station syphoned diesel out and drained fuel filter and pumped gas in. I tried to get compensation for this error, but never resolved it.

I wouldn’t say strangest but these were very different compared to what I am used to in India.Water Fountains - People in the USA drinking water from fountains; when my wife told me that she noticed it in O’Hare airport I didn’t believe her for weeks till I saw with my own eyes.Edit: Since so many are asking about what’s wrong with the drinking water fountain in comments I am adding this to clarify.There is nothing wrong with drinking from the fountain and it is well maintained and hygienic as well. Just that I didn’t think drinking directly from the water source would be in practice in USA.As a note I didn’t know how to drink from it during the initial days; I thought there is a proximity sensor that would sense my presence and dispense the water. :-)2. Traffic - The absence of traffic in most suburbs and roads being virtually free when compared to India.3. Extremes in fitness - The average American is either extremely fit and exercises every day or overweight and trying or not trying to get the excess weight off.4. Reserved Parking - I was surprised that every parking lot has slots reserved for the differently abled; it’s a good thing though.5. Cost of Healthcare - Healthcare without insurance burns a hole in your pocket and even the premiums are expensive; it could range from $400 to $1000 per month depending on coverage level, types of benefits, etc6. Vast Empty Spaces - There are vast empty spaces along side highways, suburbs, villages and virtually everywhere.7. Parks/Play Areas - There are parks/play areas in every 2 or 3 miles and it includes playground/slides/swimming pools/ping pong tables/etc.8. Huge Parking Lots - Every mall/shopping centers have huge parking lots and nearly 50% of them are empty unless it is a very busy place. you don’t have to pay a dime in most places for parking.9. Lack of public transport - Public transport is practically non existent compared to India. There are very few buses in suburban areas and public transportation is aplenty only in huge cities like Chicago, New York, etc. Taxis are expensive and one typically pays $3 to $5 a mile in most places. Owning a car is a necessity rather than a comfort. Given below are some pics of the Chicago Union Station which is akin to Chennai Central/ Chatrapati Shivaji/etc in India.10. Limited Veggie options - You have to stick to McD, Burger King, Olive Garden, Subway, etc and few restaurants that offer veggie options during trips. There are just a couple or just a handful of options in most restaurants. In India the veggie food and cuisine changes even between two cities in the same state and there are thousands of cuisines/dishes that I am not even aware of; let alone taste. Also India has more restaurants that offer veggie rather than non veggie.Edit1: I am a veggie and travelled to just Buffalo, New York and Chicago (I live in Chicago suburbs). I didn't get any decent veggie options in a few minutes I took to search. There could be more veggie options if I had the time to explore. If you eat non veg then it's heaven and you will have a blast.Edit 2: Few have suggested me Find Vegan & Vegetarian Restaurants Near You - HappyCow to find veggie food near me; will definitely try that. Adding it to the answer so that fellow veggies are aware of it.11. Junk Food - Pizza/Burger/Fries/etc are available virtually everywhere and I am shocked to see this food being given to even Toddlers.12. Obsession with Soda - You see everyone carrying a cup of soda anywhere; malls/movies/restaurant/car/etc. Even toddlers consume lots of soda which is just sugar, carbonated water and flavour. Soda comes with 50% of the cup filled with ice unless you ask for soda without ice.13. Carrying coffee/soda to restrooms - Restrooms are among the filthiest places and I can’t imagine/understand why one would carry a cup of coffee/soda in to one. Ewww!!!14. Diapers and wipes in most restrooms - If you forgot the diaper/wipes for the baby and even if you need a quick replacement you can just check in the restrooms and you can get one if you pay $0.5 or $1. This is a very good thing in emergencies; you don’t have to run to a store to buy a diaper pack.15. Large Food Portions/Soda - Most food items come in large portions and we usually pack the leftover food and have it for the next breakfast/dinner. Soda also comes in huge sizes; AMC theatre has 40 oz cup for soda!!! The medium size is 32 oz and the small is 16 oz.16. Availability of Indian stuff - You are likely to get varieties of Indian vegetables, spices and other groceries in one place in many states in the USA rather than a market or departmental store in India.17. Availability of frozen Indian food - I got introduced to many Gujarati food items like Patra, Mathia, etc albeit frozen which I haven't even heard of when in India.18. Cool Water - Water from the fountain is really cool and one cannot drink more than two sips at a time unless used to it. Water in certain restaurants are also cool since they add ice to water and if you don't need it have to specifically ask for it.19. Cheaper Fruits - Fruits like Apple and strawberry are cheaper at peak seasons compared to India. A pound is sold for as low as $0.50 for apples and $0.33 for strawberries. Even if you convert it to INR then it's cheaper than in India; I guess because most of these are imported in to India.20. Strawberry/Apple picking - Anyone can pay a price and get in to fields to pick their own strawberries and apples. Such a thing doesn't happen in India and it has come to my notice that this is picking up steam in India as well. This helps farmers as well as consumers since it reduces cost of picking and transportation and let's consumers enjoy fresh fruits.Edit: Few have mentioned in comments that fruit picking has started in India too; happy to hear that. Hopefully I can pick some fruits when I return to India but it is not prevalent as in the USA.21. Easy to get Credit Card/Loan - It’s pretty easy to get credit cards/vehicle loans when you have a SSN. Just a month after being here one can get credit cards or loan but the interest rates will be higher and won’t get many 0% APR offers but that changes after a year or so. Too many credit card offers flood the mailbox. America is more of a spending economy and it seems to be reflected in credit cards/loans. In India it’s a nightmare if you have more than a couple of credit cards and you are on the look out for a loan; no.of. credit card accounts reduce your credit score adversely.22. Minimal Savings - Many Americans cannot manage expenses if they miss a paycheck because they already in to monthly payments due to credit cards/loans.The Secret Shame of Middle-Class Americans Living Paycheck to PaycheckMost Americans can't handle a $500 surprise bill23. Costly prepaid plans -It’s costly compared to India in that the prepaid plans require payment every month rather than giving a fixed talktime and validity for the money paid. In India you can pay 250 INR (about $4) and you will get talktime worth 250 INR (approx 1000 mins of calls) and validity of three to four months to use up the talktime. Data is separate you would need to shell out $2 to $5 depending on 2G/3G/4G/LTE and is valid for a month. I imagined these would be cheaper in USA since it’s a developed country.24. Costly Broadband - You need shell out anywhere between $25 and $50 per month for broadband and the speeds are high compared to India. But you are stuck with Comcast in most parts of the country and don’t have any options; not to mention their infamous customer service. :-)25. Pay bills online - Almost 99% of the bills could be paid online and it is free of charge in most banks.26. Signup bonus - Many banks offer sign up bonus between $50 and $300 for opening new checking accounts and credit cards; this is unheard of in India. they do offer some discounts and cashbacks but sign up bonus isn’t common.27. Low interest rates - Savings account get very less interest rates around 1% to 2% or even lesser; while it is around 5% to 6% in India.Savings Account: Compare & Open Savings Account Online28. Steep Discounts - Products like Macbook, iPhone get either discounts or gift cards ranging from $100 to $300 at third party retailers like BestBuy which is not the norm in India.29. Large number of phones sold by network carriers - Every one buys phones from carriers by way of contracts/paying in full/discounts, etc in loads. In India retailers are the ones that sell most numbers; carriers have a minimal share. Most phones are bought unlocked and paid in full; so many don’t buy expensive phones which they cannot afford to pay immediately.30. Timeliness - Everyone is on time for work/meetings/etc. They would arrive early rather than arrive late. If the agreed upon time is 10 AM then it is 10 AM; not 10:05 AM or 10:10 AM.31. Secure doors in apartments - Doors to apartment buildings are secured through security codes and cannot unlock without it. Package delivery teams also don’t have access to security codes and deliver at mailbox or apartment management office or place it near the door. Even the fire department personnel don’t have access to it; I had assisted them once when they couldn’t open the door to the apartment with the keys. :-)32. Fall Colors - There is no season that can be clearly termed as Autumn in India and the trees retain most of the leaves during the season and remain evergreen. In the USA you see enormous amounts of colors even while driving/walking in the streets.33. Need permission to burst crackers - You have to take permission from officials/communities to burst crackers whereas in India we take it for granted and burst as much as we can. All we do now is just burst some sparklers and get to temple to see the real fireworks. Fireworks are on display during July 4, New Year, etc but never the same as in India.34. Certain places have same names - For example there is a Geneva, IL - Official Website in Illinois which might confuse some who are aware of the popular Geneva - Wikipedia in Switzerland. There is a Prospect Heights, Illinois - Wikipedia in Illinois as well as one Prospect Heights, Brooklyn - Wikipedia in Brooklyn.35. USA is very big and vast - This can be illustrated with the fact that United States uses nine standard time zones. From east to west they are Atlantic Standard Time (AST), Eastern Standard Time (EST), Central Standard Time (CST), Mountain Standard Time (MST), Pacific Standard Time (PST), Alaskan Standard Time (AKST), Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time (HST), Samoa standard time (UTC-11) and Chamorro Standard Time (UTC+10).Time Zone36. Roads are silent - No one honks unless a person blocks the way or does something dangerous/stupid on the road. It’s very silent except for the engine sound and cars passing by on most roads.37. Buying and driving car is easy - Buying a car is like buying a cycle in India. You can get loans from a bank for the car’s entire value (including registration, etc) and you needn’t a single penny upfront. All you need to do is sign the papers and pay the monthly dues. Driving is also easy since most follow traffic rules and most cars have automatic transmission and don’’t have to worry about shifting to the correct gear.38. Driving over Speed limit - Many drive over the speed limit; when I say over it doesn’t mean by 2–4 mph it’s usually above 10 mph. It’s a nightmare to change lanes in freeways in Illinois when adhering to the speed limit; you have to be above the speed limit to change lanes unless the freeway doesn’t have much traffic. Traffic tickets cost a lot but doesn’t seem to prevent many from driving over the limit.39. Gun Culture - This is always in the news and every weekend sees a dozen gunshots fired in/around Chicago wounding few and killing few. It’s really scary when you see the news and you remember you were at the same spot just a week ago.40. Cinemas - AMC offers tickets for $5 - $6 during Tuesdays and morning shows on weekends. The tickets are really cheap when you compare against a popcorn or fry costing $5 - $10. The movie experience is good nevertheless.41. Tipping Culture - Workers in restaurant/taxi/pizza delivery/etc business are usually underpaid and customers are expected to tip at least 15% to make up for low wages. It’s a necessity and not extra money like in India. If you don’t tip it’s considered as rude or that service was poor and some might even ask you why there was no tip.42. Free refills/discounts - Many restaurants offer free refills on their large size sodas for $0.25/$0.5 or for free. AMC theatres has a large cup which is reported to be 54 oz for soda and offers free refill as well; I am not sure if anyone refilled the large cup. Also you get free refill for the Large popcorn bags at AMC.AMC also offers discounts/rewards for members based on the money spent in AMC; its around 10% i.e., if you spend $50 you get back $5 that can be used for tickets/snacks/etc.Disclaimer: I am not endorsing AMC; just gave it as an example.43. Imperial System in practice - I was surprised to see weight specified in pounds and fluid in ounces; I thought these were done away with till I came here.44. Everyone is courteous and polite - Most people are courteous/polite and greet you in roads/malls/shops/etc which doesn’t happen in India. We usually greet only known persons in India; otherwise you get weird looks. But the courteousness/politeness seems to disappear when driving a car.45. World Cuisine - You can get any food ranging from Chinese to Mexican (I mean all types of food across the world) and if you eat non veg then you are in heaven. Cheese is of entirely different quality from that used in India. I fell in love with Pizza and Pasta and I am not sure if I can get Pizza/Pasta that tastes so good any where in India.46. Variety of Fruits - You get variety of fruits ranging from Apple (I don’t know how many varieties are there.. I have eaten Gala, Red Delicious,Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Braeburn, Empire, Golden Delicious, Jonathan, JonaGold, Fuji and there are many more I haven’t tried yet), Cherry, Strawberry, Durian, Mangosteen, Jackfruit, Mango, etc. I bought Durian once and will never eat it again; it’s gooey like beaten/heated Cheese and the smell is awful.45. Education cost - School education is virtually free; the few hundred dollars fee per year wouldn’t even be enough to maintain schools whereas in India I would have to spend few hundred dollars for a quarter in most schools. Cost of college education is ridiculously high and almost every student is in huge financial burden irrespective of the part time jobs.46. Drive in - I couldn’t imagine a drive in before I came to the USA. Drive in ATMs and fast food is convenient but don’t understand why many don’t sit down and have a quick bite rather than eating in the car. I am still used to it and usually park the car and walk in even if I need a coffee.47. Hot water in taps/baths - To get hot water all you need to do is open the tap. We are used to turning the heater ON and waiting for 5/10/any minutes for getting hot water for bath and other purposes.48. No water in the poo-poo area - Western toilets are widespread in India these days but they do have a tap/water source from which one can clean up and dry yourself with paper after the business but in the USA you have to get used to just the paper.49. Concept of City - City in India means a well developed/urbanized area that can sprawl up to thousands of square kilometers but in USA it would mean a small area running up to a maximum in hundreds of square miles.50. Relatively quiet and queue-less banks - Banks are often overcrowded and need to wait for at least an hour to make deposit money or do any other banking activity. There are numerous ATMs where you can make deposits as well but many prefer to make it in person in the branch. In comparison banks in USA are relatively empty most of the time and you can walk out within few minutes and no tokens needed for any activity; you just head to the counter.51. Bank account can be opened online - Sure there are online applications in India too but you need to visit the branch to submit the form and proofs, make the initial deposit and get the account activated. Even these can be done online in the USA from the comfort of your home; all you need is scanned copies of the proofs.52. Coffee/Comfortable seats in Banks- Most banks in USA have candy/coffee for the customers and the waiting seats are among the most comfy ones I have sat in. You can wait in those comfy seats while the banking officer gets ready for your request. India has seats too for waiting but nowhere near to these and its not possible when there are huge crowds.53. Double Fees for using other ATMs - One can do up to 4 transactions in a month at other bank ATMs for free in India whereas in USA you maybe charged by the bank that issued the card and also by the bank that owns the ATM.54. Different apparels in different seasons - Most regions in India are hot throughout the year and there isn’t a need to have different clothes by season; most dresses will do good throughout the year. Due to the extremes in weather in summer/winter different types of clothes are needed in the USA; I knew about this even before entering the USA but never imagined the scale of the new product launches during the different seasons.55. Dark Coffee/Tea - Most in the USA consume dark coffee/tea without adding cream/milk but this is unthinkable for an average Indian. The way coffee/tea is made is way different where in the milk is in abundance and then the coffee/tea is added for taste.I will keep adding as and when I remember…I had written an answer for a similar question; please refer link below for more details.Balaji Viswanathan's answer to What is it like to be an Indian living in a foreign country? Does it affect the way you live? Do you still carry on with Indian rituals? Is it difficult to be an Indian person in another country?