‘Disgusting India-India slogan’: Professor says he was embarrassed when ‘Delhi bros’ caused riot at Iguazu Falls

Gaurav Sabnis, an Indian-born professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, shared his experience visiting Iguazu Falls and how embarrassed he felt as an Indian when a group of Indians caused a ruckus, yelled and jumped in line at Iguazu Falls. It was a boat tour that required tourists to change cars and queue multiple times to get to the ship, Sabnis recalled. There were a lot of Indians, but he specifically noted that there was a group from Delhi “intended to win Delhi’s stereotype bingo.” Others were annoyed with the group in Delhi for cutting the queue and calling on others who were with them to join the queue, finding their own space by pushing others. Sabnis explained that there were several cars and the line moved quickly, with no reason to rush or jump in line. Four people jumped the queue, but that soon became eight because they called more people and they claimed they were traveling together, so it became fifteen. “Now other tourists are rolling their eyes and getting annoyed. And this group is too loud and chattering incessantly. There is no concept of lowering your voice in public,” Sabnis posted. Sabnis said they asked him to go ahead of them when he protested and said that if they were traveling together, they should queue together instead of jumping in line. He told them that queue jumping was not the only problem, but their behavior left a bad impression on Indians. Sabnis said he refused to go in front of the rowdy crowd because he was in no rush, but the whole commotion these people created was absolutely unnecessary as they could have saved 4 to 5 minutes at most.On the boat, the men also started shouting “India! India!” Sabnis said, like it was a cricket match. “The looks and reactions of the non-Indians around us were very telling, and for good reason. I wanted to write ‘I’m not with them’ on my T-shirt. They would all go away and tell stories about the obnoxious behavior of some Indians in a very polite, soft-spoken country,” Sabnis said, adding that many of the Indians on the tour were polite and soft-spoken and they wouldn’t cut in line, but they would be forgotten and people would only talk about the loud talkers. “They don’t even realize that shouting ‘India! India!’ does India and Indians no good while others are on a shared boat taking photos and videos of lifelong memories,” the post added.