- By Shailvee Tiwari
- Wed, 17 Sep 2025 10:58 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
Russian Woman Viral Video: When people move to a new country, they gradually adopt small habits that once felt unusual but later become an integral part of their everyday life. That’s exactly what happened with Russian content creator Anastasia Sharova after shifting to India. Living here for the past four years has completely changed the way she goes about her daily routine and her fun Instagram reel “Strange habits that I adopted when I moved to India” proves it.
In the reel, Sharova shares 11 unique yet quirky habits she never imagined would become so normal for her. For instance, she now gives quick honks before turning on blind curves. Taking off shoes before entering homes and shops has also become second nature to her, and she admits it “makes perfect sense in the local context.”
Her lifestyle now includes very Indian practices: oiling hair together with family, joining in mosquito smoke rituals every evening and always keeping a jar of pickle on the dining table. After meals, she enjoys fennel seeds or cardamom, just like most Indian households. She carries a steel flask everywhere, uses the famous “accha” nod to agree and has even mastered drinking water the Indian way, without the bottle touching her lips. Handshakes are gone too; she now prefers a simple and respectful “namaste.”
She always checks shoes and bathrooms for frogs, or sometimes snakes, before using them. What once felt strange is now completely normal to her. Explaining why she calls them strange, she says, “You may ask why I called them strange. Because when people from outside see them out of context, they ask me: Why did you do that? For me, now they are the most logical things to do.”
Watch The Viral Video:
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The video shared on the social media platform Instagram under the username 'anasharovasingh' four days ago garnered 2.8 million views from netizens. Users flooded the comment section with love and praise. "That accha thing is such a sweet part of your detailed description," a user wrote. "Keep it up. This brings positive and good energy to your house, family and self. Moreover, you feel happy and elated after having done this," a second user wrote.
"I find doing namaskar to be a more sanitized way of greeting anyone. Suppose someone I am meeting or, in fact, I myself am carrying any germs or dirt on my hands; if I shake hands, it will get transferred. But by doing namaskar, it's prevented," added a third user. "This is not a strange habit. This is how my mom arranged it every day at 5 am during the month of Markazhi in my village during the 1960s," wrote a fourth user.
"You know something? In other countries, you adopt rituals because those are the rules that you have to follow. But in India, these are not rules but a lifestyle, and they do not force you to follow. Joining hands for namaste is nowhere a rule in India, but wearing a hijab is a must in most Islamic countries. Yes, they may say to keep your shoes out of a mandir, but never outside a shop if you are not comfortable," wrote a fifth user.