Small talk

Somewhere on the second morning your driver will turn the music down and ask which country you are from. The conversation that follows runs on a small set of shared references, and three of them will carry you through almost anyone in India. This page is that set: cricket, films, the questions you will be asked, and the Hindi words that do real work.

Cricket

India won the men's Twenty20 World Cup at home on 8 March 2026, beating New Zealand by 96 runs in Ahmedabad — the first side to win it three times, the first to defend it, and the first host country to take it. Jasprit Bumrah took four wickets for fifteen runs in the final. Eight months on, this is still the easiest opening line you have.

Your trip lands in the middle of India's tour of New Zealand, with one-day matches scheduled for 4, 7 and 10 November. New Zealand runs seven and a half hours ahead, so these are breakfast matches — expect a hotel lobby television on at eight in the morning and nobody watching reception.

The other half of the subject is the Indian Premier League, played by ten city franchises every April and May — the richest cricket league in the world and, outside a World Cup, the biggest thing on Indian television. Royal Challengers Bengaluru won in 2026, their second in a row, with Virat Kohli making 75 not out in the final. Everyone has a team, and asking which is safe anywhere.

Kohli is the name to know: retired from Test cricket in 2025 and from short international matches in 2024, still playing one-day cricket for India and still playing for Bangalore. Whether he should carry on is argued in every chai stall in the country. Shubman Gill captains India in Tests and one-day matches; behind them stand two retired gods, Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni, and mentioning either buys you ten minutes.

India against Pakistan is a different matter. The two countries do not tour each other, so they meet only at tournaments — last in Colombo in February — and the audience is put at around half a billion, several times the Super Bowl. That scarcity is why the fixture carries what it carries. Watch it if it is on; do not open with it.

Films

Bollywood means Hindi-language cinema, made in Mumbai, and three men born in the mid-1960s still sit at the top of it: Shah Rukh Khan — SRK, or King Khan — with Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. All three have films out in 2026, the first time in eight years; Shah Rukh's, called King, opens on 24 December. Say "Shah Rukh" and you will get an opinion.

Two things beyond the names. Nearly every Hindi song your driver plays comes from a film, sung by a playback singer rather than the actor on screen, so asking what a song is from is a better question than it sounds. And the biggest Indian films of recent years have not been Hindi at all but Telugu and Tamil — RRR, Baahubali, Pushpa. Calling one of those Bollywood is a small error with a large meaning attached.

The questions you will be asked

Strangers here place each other by asking directly. Nothing on this list is an intrusion, and none of it needs a full answer.

• Which country? Poland lands neutrally to warmly — no colonial history, no headlines. Younger men who follow European football may send Lewandowski's name back at you; most people file it under Europe and move on.
• First time in India? How do you find it? Say yes and say you like it. Praise the food and you will be believed.
• Married? Children? How old are you? Asked within five minutes, and meant kindly. A vague answer offends nobody.
• What work do you do? What do you earn? The salary question is normal here and needs no number. "Enough" works.
• A photograph with you? Mostly from families and school groups. Yes and no are both fine; say yes to one and expect a queue.

Chai

Being offered tea opens most hospitality here, and the honest answer depends on where you are. At a stall or a small shop the chai costs ten rupees, means goodwill, and obliges you to nothing — accept it, drink it, say the tea is good, buy nothing. Refusing outright reads as cold; "later" is the softer no.

In a marble emporium or carpet showroom that your driver has suggested, the same cup opens a sales session, and the shop pays him a cut if you buy. You may still drink it and leave with nothing, but you will be worked on for half an hour first. Decide before the tea arrives whether you intend to buy, and if not, say so once at the door, clearly and pleasantly.

The head wobble

A quick side-to-side tilt of the head, neck loose. It is not "no". A slow, deliberate wobble means yes; a fast loose one means "I hear you, go on", closer to a nod than to a word. It also softens a refusal, which is why "is the fort open today?" can produce a wobble and no clear answer. When you need a fact, ask again with a closed question. Don't imitate it: it is not a greeting, and copied it reads as mimicry.

What to enjoy, what to leave

Cricket, food, family, films, where someone is from, what the fields are growing, what things cost, how a fort was built: all easy ground, and Indians are generous talkers on all of it. Ask your driver where he eats, not where he thinks you should. Leave Kashmir, Pakistan, relations between Hindus and Muslims, party politics, caste, and cows and beef. Plenty of people will raise these themselves, sometimes forcefully, and hearing out a strong opinion is not the same as supplying one back. Asked what you think, "I don't know enough about it" is true and ends nothing.

Eight words

Almost everyone you deal with speaks working English, so none of this is needed — which is the point of using it.