To be frustrated with my friend who’s become a “guru” after a trip to India?

[Silentfriend]

My friend recently went to India and has returned with a completely new attitude. She now acts like she’s a life guru, constantly telling people to quit their jobs, disregard their managers, and dismisses “first-world problems” with a “you just don’t understand” attitude. She even created a separate Instagram page to give out life advice, though it seems more like she’s having a mid-life crisis rather than offering genuine wisdom.

I’m getting really tired of her constant preachiness and the way she’s acting superior. AIBU to feel frustrated with her attitude and the way she’s using her trip as a platform to push her new “enlightened” persona?

This thread is hilarious. Keep the stories coming!

I knew a chap, very middle class and British, who got a Russian housemate. Russian housemate was very tall, very loud, very lovely. Used to drink vodka in the hallway and chat about his life. Think he was doing something in medicine. Can't remember the details.

Anyway, British chap thought he was special because he got invited to play cards with Russian housemate and his Russian friends. Started speaking with a Russian accent, reading Russian literature. He even changed his facial expressions. It was so bizarre.

I bumped into an ex girlfriend of his a year or so back, and she confirmed he'd kept up the Russian antics. Also began to slightly change his name to "Russianise" it a bit when introducing himself to people.

Bizarre chap!

This happens to everyone when they come back from India.

My boyfriend who didn't come with me bought me an eternity necklace from a mainstream shop and I told him I didn't like it as I wanted something handmade or unique to me. Didn't even thank him or soften the blow.

Did they take the obligatory copy of Shantaram with them?

A deep, strong Irish accent.

From what part of Ireland?

(It's the same as England etc., you know, accents vary a lot by region).

Anyway, how bizarre.

Perhaps neurodiverse or even mh issues.

It's like something a kid or teenager would do, as a phase.

He never showed any other signs of anything. Perfectly "normal" in absolutely everything else he did, aside from the Russian thing.

also just think that india tends to be so much in your face (very, very loud, very dynamic, very colourful and seemingly a billion people (and now a billion honking cars) where ever you go) that it's an onslaught to your senses and maybe that resets something in your brain. I think when faced with that a lot of people tend to turn inwards. This is not a bad thing if it leads you to really think deeply about your life and what you want from it.
I'm Indian and have just come back from the home of hippies finding spiritual enlightenment (Goa). I agree. All I came back with was a low level headache from the noise and loads of cheap lovely summer dresses!

I thoroughly enjoy pissing him off by saying that his GM’s family weren’t ‘proper’ Irish anyway - they were Protestants in Eire, so probably descended from pretty hardcore Prod. Scottish immigrants a few hundred years ago.

Wow a (presumably) English person who actually knows that England/GB/UK colonized Ireland with a tonne of Scots (and some English) for hundreds of years, rather than just moaning about "apes parading in cheap band uniforms" and about their whiskey tourism experience being ruined by Bushmills village having union jack bunting .... Makes a nice change.

However I'm curious as to whether you'd tell an American whose ancestors colonized the US around the same time (probably later in fact) that they're not proper Americans.

I thoroughly enjoy pissing him off by saying that his GM’s family weren’t ‘proper’ Irish anyway - they were Protestants in Eire, so probably descended from pretty hardcore Prod. Scottish immigrants a few hundred years ago. 😈 🙂
My DH is the same, except his grandparents were from Belfast! It does piss me off but I get to go in the EU queue with him and travellung with him doesnt come out of my 90 days. His grandad was Orange Order too which, as a (lapsed) Catholic is even more galling!

I knew a bloke who went to Canada for two weeks, decided he had the accent, and kept it forever more.

As a teen in the 80s I had a romanticised notion that if life ever got too much I could always 'disappear' to India. This is despite being a white suburbanite who had never been further than Spain. I thought it would be just one long calm spiritual lifestyle.

When I did go to India in my 20s for the long awaited 6 month trip of spiritual enlightenment I got perved on, had an attempted handbag snatch, the worst shits of my life, and a visit to a guru who solemnly informed me that I would have 'trouble with piles' all my life.

In my 50s now and yet to have piles!

I’m learning Italian on Duolingo and joined a Facebook group. One person posted they were learning Italian because they were Italian. It turned out she had never been to Italy and her family had emigrated to the US in about 1900.

Haha that's hilarious🤣🤣
But sorry it was a disappointment ☺️

I am Italian (born there, lived there for 20 years, all my family live there) and I come across this a lot. Especially in US and LatAm, so many people say they are Italian when they are 3rd or 4th Generation and have never set foot in Italy.

It really doesn't. I know plenty of people who've been to India and came back totally normal. You can't blame your rudeness on forces beyond your control.

Oh good god that’s funny 🤣 it’s like I went to Tokyo ( which I did 😏) and now I’m turning Japanese 😏

You end every sentence with ' to be sure, to be sure'!! 🤣🤣🤣

Got to say, I like the sound of a guru who tells you that you will have trouble with piles. They sound matter of fact and specific. Even if they aren’t right.

At uni we used to call these types ‘GYBs’ (Gap Year Bores).

Like many people in the UK, my grandparents came over from Ireland to London. The reason they left Ireland in the first place was because of poverty and lack of opportunities (whereas now people leave as its too expensive to live - how times change) but their 2 youngest children were born and brought up in London (my aunts) but the way they carry on, it's like they spent their whole lives in Ireland and they still think of it as been from the land my grandparents left behind without realising that Ireland is even more ahead of the UK in some stakes , it does sometimes make me cringe as neither of them have visited Ireland in years and I think it's a similar theme in US and Canada, they very much romanticise the Ireland of the past and forget why their ancestors left in the first place.
But some of these stories are hilarious, some of these gurus do every well selling their wisdom to other people but somehow never seem to live a life of discomfort 😂

I went to Malham on a school trip. Got locked in the pub with a few local lads. It took me weeks to lose the Yorkshire accent, but I never pretended to be from there.

"However I'm curious as to whether you'd tell an American whose ancestors colonized the US around the same time (probably later in fact) that they're not proper Americans."

Or indeed, a Londoner whose ancestors came on the Windrush that they're not really English/ British.

I knew a girl at uni who did this but didn't even go to Ireland first. She adopted a slight accent, used an Irish first name, and went to Catholic mass. We all assumed she was actually Irish, but it turned out she was from London, and when we met her parents they weren't Irish or even Catholic and called her by her real (English) first name. But she still went around being 'Irish'. No idea how long it lasted after uni as we lost touch.

Reminds me of this girl at school, she went to the states for about 2 weeks when we were around 12 and came back speaking with an american accent. We all thought it would wear off after a bit but no, that accent stayed till we all left that school at 16! She only went for 2 weeks!

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha
Rubbish person