It starts at the airport. The quiet belief in lines, the air of solicitousness that creeps in almost imperceptibly, the deference to women, children, the disabled or senior citizens. Indians on the verge of leaving India always seem to have a switch that mysteriously turns on or off just before those international flights turn on their boarding signs.

This takes a while, of course. There is still the pushing and shoving for a boarding pass, followed by arguments about going over the luggage limit, and entreaties for discounts or ways of avoiding the inevitable fines that come with shoving more into bags that airlines ask us to. By the time security is over and done with, however, it's as if our sense of 'being Indian' starts to slowly fade into the ether. We start to wait until the person in front of us has finished browsing through the duty-free counter, start to smile at fellow passengers, use words like 'Please' and 'Thank You' more often, and gently shrug our innate sense of entitlement that usually smothers us the minute we step outside our homes.