Southern Asia
Video Chat with People from India
India runs on a single time zone, India Standard Time, set at an unusual UTC+5:30 with no daylight saving. A 9 PM chat in Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru falls in the afternoon in London and late morning in New York, while Singapore is only two and a half hours ahead.
Who you meet depends a lot on where they live. Hindi is widely spoken across the north, Tamil is the language of Chennai and Tamil Nadu, and Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada and Malayalam each have large communities of speakers. English is common in cities and at work, often blended with Hindi into easygoing Hinglish. Good topics: cricket and the IPL, Bollywood alongside Tamil and Telugu cinema, chai versus South Indian filter coffee, whose city makes the best biryani, monsoon season, and trips to Goa, Kerala's backwaters or the Himalayas. If you'd like a few words before you start, see our Hindi phrases or Tamil phrases.
India at a glance
How to say hello
A friendly local greeting makes a great first impression.
| Language | Phrase | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hindi | नमस्ते | namaste (nuh-muh-STAY) | Hello (polite, any time of day) |
| Hindi | क्या हाल है? | kya haal hai (kyaa HAAL hai) | How's it going? |
| Tamil | வணக்கம் | vanakkam (vuh-NUK-kum) | Hello (polite) |
| Tamil | எப்படி இருக்கீங்க? | eppadi irukkeenga (ep-puh-dee ih-ROOK-keen-guh) | How are you? (polite, everyday Tamil) |
Tips for chatting with people from India
- Ask which state they're from and what language they grew up with. Many people speak two or three languages and switch between them without a second thought.
- Indian English has its own vocabulary, like 'prepone' (to move something earlier) or 'timepass' (something done just to pass the time). If a word is new to you, asking about it makes a great tangent.
- Cricket is easy common ground even if you only know the basics; ask them to explain a T20 match or name their favorite IPL team.
- IST's half-hour offset catches people out. Check the local time box on this page before you assume it's evening there.
Only meet people from India
Omlet matches you Worldwide by default. To meet only people from India, use the country filter, the only filter Omlet has:
- Open Omlet and press Country on the control panel.
- Search for India and select it.
- Press Start. Press Next to meet someone else from India, or switch back to Worldwide any time.
Your first day is free: you add a card through Stripe to start it, and nothing is charged that day. When the 24 hours end, the country filter costs $3 one time, charged to that card, unless you cancel before then in Settings (if you cancel, you can still pick a country until the day ends). It's not a subscription, and it stays unlocked on that device and browser. It doesn't carry over to other devices or browsers, and clearing your browser data removes it. There's one free day per device, home network and card. Payment goes through Stripe, so Omlet never sees your card number.
The filter works both ways, and matching can be slower when fewer people from India are online. Chatting itself is free, and Worldwide matching never costs anything.
Your own country is detected automatically and shown to the people you meet as a flag.
Neighboring countries
India borders 6 countries. Curious about the people next door? Meet them too: