Goa is weird for Indians. It’s weird because it is beautiful but also not. It’s weird because the way of living is similar to how we live in the large cities in India, but also not. It’s weird because Goans make you feel like second class citizens in your own country! “But”, you might ask, “isn’t that the case anywhere in India where you put a local against a foreigner?” Yes. But it’s an order of magnitude worse in Goa, presumably because of the order of magnitude more foreigners there.
“But..”, you might ask again, “isn’t the number of Indian tourists an order of magnitude higher than the number of foreigners?’ Also true, but the value of their currency is also an order of magnitude higher than ours! As they say, money talks… “This”, you might point out agitatedly, “is old news, right? Of course if someone tips in dollars/euros, they will probably be treated nicer than those tipping in rupees”. True.
But I feel it goes deeper than that. It goes to the fundamental nature of people and reciprocity in behavior.
Simply put, Indians treat each other with apathy and indifference at best. At worst, we treat each other with contempt and disrespect. Especially if the other party belongs to the service industry and are considered lower in the customer’s perspective of social status. Foreigners, especially those from Europe, are polite, and smile, and if the server is lucky give them a tip in euros.
So yes, the tipping matters, but it’s the smile that matters more.