We love talking about how far India has come. We've got engineers running Silicon Valley, doctors saving lives across continents, and a culture so rich that people travel across the globe just to experience it. Our food, our festivals, our warmth: the world genuinely admires all of it but, unfortunately, dislikes us for one thing: etiquette!
A group of Indian tourists dancing at an airport tarmac in Vietnam not only went viral but also opened the floodgates to other such instances popping up on our social media feed.
An Indian tourist in Japan caught shoplifting, a photo of an Indian man with dirty feet up on the table at an airport lounge, an Indian man talking loudly on phone aboard a Swiss train - several posts did the rounds online.
And then there was the Reddit post. A foreign tourist who'd spent just three days in Delhi described being cut in queues repeatedly, and spoke about an uncomfortable bus ride where personal space didn't seem to exist.
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If that wasn't mortifying enough, former CIA officer John Kiriakou dropped a bombshell in a podcast with Matan Even. When he was asked which was the worst country he visited with the CIA, his answer was India! He went on to say, "I hated India. You want to take a shit, you're walking down the street, and people just pull down their pants, take a shit right there on the street and then pull up their pants and walk away (without wiping). He claimed that he stayed in India for six weeks and saw this every day!
Now, he was likely in a remote area where toilet infrastructure doesn't exist but the damage to perception was done anyway.
None of this is really new. Loud conversations in public, littering, jumping queues - we know these complaints aren't fabricated. We've all seen it, and if we're honest, some of us have done it.
What's changed is that the world is watching now, and social media makes sure nothing stays local. A moment of bad behaviour in Japan doesn't stay in Japan anymore.
IPS officer Arun Bothra also commented on it in an X post: "Having an Indian passport is not just a right. It also comes with the responsibility to respect local laws, behave properly in public, and protect the country's image."
That's really the crux of the debate. India has so much to be proud of and boast about. But it only takes a few loud, careless moments to overshadow decades of goodwill.
Will the shame, the viral posts, and the constant reminders actually change anything? For now, all we can do is hope and maybe be more patient the next time we're standing in a queue.
