India - Smell-icus Rex: Terror of Bangalore

India’s culture is old and many faceted. This entry will take on one part of the culture that drives me crazy: Personal Hygiene. To do this topic justice there is some background information that I should cover here.

In India there are a few social systems that differentiate people. One of those systems is called the “Caste” system. Another of those systems is the “Upper, middle, lower class” system common to any modern culture. Now, everyone in India belongs to some level of both of these systems. The Caste system has much to do with what part of the country you are from and who is your family. The class system has much to do with where you work and where you went to school. Now, what does this system have to do with personal hygiene? Glad you asked.

People here at Wipro are all middle class (or higher) members of society. Most of the people in the IT industry in India are middle class or higher. Here middle class means you live a modern life. You have a laptop, internet at home, a nice home, a car, and other things like that. Now, Wipro runs multiple Technology campuses here in Bangalore. Most of these campuses are supported by outside contractors.

These contractors are the focus of my gripes. You see, these contractors handle all the service activities for the campuses. All the grounds keepers, the security, the house keepers, the laundry people, the construction workers, and the cafeteria workers are provided by these contracting companies.

Now, all of these workers that I have met personally have been very nice people. They do their jobs well and take pride in their work. They are all smiles and helpful all the time. When I was sick they even went and got medicine for me and brought me water. However, almost without fail all of these people smell STRONGLY of body odor. These people are paid very little per hour; they make less than five dollars a day, maybe even less than that. These people would be considered “Lower class” by modern standards.

These people smell. It’s as simple as that. They probably do not have the funds to purchase deodorant and they probably do not have running water where they live, so taking a shower or bath is hard to do. As long as you don’t stand down wind of them you can’t smell them at all, but sometimes it’s bad. The worst experience I have had is after the housekeeper came (who is male for those of you thinking of a female housekeeper) and my desk area smelled like body odor for two days afterward because he was watching TV in my room (in my chair) for a while. I walked in and found him sitting there chilling. It made me laugh until he left and I smelled the odor. I had to turn the ceiling fan up all the way just to mask the smell. It went away after a few days, but it was still disturbing.

All of this may be just my American sensibilities bothering me, but the smell is bad. My foreign friends might find my complaints naïve and close-minded, but I don’t think I am being unfair. In all fairness, I have actually noticed that some of the Wipro people that I come into contact with smell faintly of body odor too. This disturbs me since these people are middle class and can most definitely afford all the trappings of personal hygiene. I have no idea why they would smell like that, but they do. So in all fairness the smell is not just from the low class workers, middle class Wiproites also smell sometimes too (hell, I probably even smell sometimes, but I swear I try to mask it as much as possible), but the incidence of odor and the strength of the odor is much less with the Wiproites than with the service workers here.

I still am not sure why some of the Wiproites smell funny, but I don’t ask questions either. So, those of you who are coming to India are forewarned that some of the people you interact with my smell strange or bad. Don’t let it bother you, it’s just some people, most people smell just fine.