I left my home in the Gambia, a small and peaceful coastal country in West Africa, in end September 2011 and came to India to pursue my degree in journalism and mass communication at Sharda University. I had no idea where I was going to except for what I saw in the Bollywood movies that I watched while I was still back home.

I thought it was going to be a smooth ride: just come, concentrate on my studies and go back home as a degree holder. But none of these was going to be that easy, I was to discover later.

Leaving home has taught me a lot of new things. I had to manage so many things, I believe I have already earned a degree in management (the quality of which you can only get at the Ivy League universities) free of charge. The first and the most difficult things I had to manage on my arrival in Delhi was food. In the Gambia, 95 percent of the population is non-vegetarian but that is not the case here, as most of the people here are vegetarians. And from what I have learnt, it is a religious belief here that animals should not be killed for food. That was when I learned adaptation and being responsible.

The things I saw, learnt and experienced made me think how different peoples can be at two ends of the world and I came to treat my folks back home with far more respect than I had for them when I left the Gambia. After spending a year here, I have realised why travellers in the medieval world believed the road is the best teacher.

There is one remarkable change in the customs of these two countries that I’d like to talk about. I wonder if the people here are really like this or maybe they don’t know me enough, but greetings are not as valuable as they are where I come from (just an observation). People here rarely greet you and hardly return your greetings when you do so. Where I come from, greeting is the most important thing in our daily lives. It is considered very rude when you don’t greet people, even complete strangers. Some people will laugh at you the minute they see you coming, others run away from you and or even call you names, I don’t know why and can’t seem to find the answers.

However, I must say that I’m pretty much amazed by the things I have discovered and learnt in this short period that I have been away from home, and I must confess, that I have suffered a cultural shock and I am yet to recover. I met different people from different countries around the world and I must say our ways back home are very different from their ways.

I have also learned to be cautious in my dealings and exchanges with other people. You can’t just trust anyone. There is always someone trying to take advantage of the fact that you are new or supposedly “ignorant”. I have been a victim of such incidents a couple of times but I am wiser now, however you can never be wise enough.

From exaggerated transportation costs by local drivers, false cost of commodities, poor service delivery, to subjects of girls' gossip and mockery, I have learnt to be tolerant. I have been angry over some of them a couple of times but I always console myself with the idea that they are just part of the ignorant few and also the fact that it’s just a matter of time and I will complete my studies and go home. I must admit they have opened my eyes wide to some basic facts and realities of where I have found myself.

Not everyone and everything is so bleak though. I made a couple of native friends here and they are really nice. My experiences here have also taught me not to allow my prejudices to affect my interactions and relationships with other people.