Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born in Germany but moved to England at the age of 12. He then moved to India in the 1950s, where he married and settled into a better part of his life. The essay "Myself in India" is based on his experiences there. Jhabvala refers to India as an animal four times in the essay. We meet him for the first time when he describes India “…but there is no point in making a catalog of the horrors with which we live, on which we live, as on the back of an animal”. He uses it as a metaphor. When we think of animals we often have this image of wild and dangerous creatures and as we know in the animal world only the strong survive. This is something he refers to throughout the essay when he talks about the hardships that Indians have to endure throughout their lives “from birth to death they never cease for one day to suffer from hunger”. He may also be referring to the fact that animals are inferior to humans and that he sees India as inferior to Western countries. If we had to choose which animal is India based on Jhabvala's feelings, the natural choice would be a tiger, because the Bengali tiger is the national animal of India. The tiger is known for being a wild and dangerous animal, but also for its beauty. In relations with India this could be a reference to the beautiful culture that enriches our experience of India, but also to some of the negative aspects it has such as poverty, unemployment and other sociological factors that paint a bleak picture of Indian life. According to Jhabvala there are several ways in which Europeans can adapt to life in India. One could be to have a purpose for coming to India in the first place, e.g. a doctor or a social worker....... middle of paper ......ure” since “culture shock is an extreme reaction to an international transition... Culture shock arises from the natural contradiction between our habitual patterns of behavior and the psychological conflict resulting from trying to maintain them in the new cultural environment". Jahabvala goes through five phases. The first is the surprise in which he becomes aware of the differences in cultures. The second is stress, whereby daily hassles become more and more difficult, leading her to become more and more introverted. The third is the irritation phase in which small objects, e.g. the sight of the Indians on the cows triggers a strong reaction. The fourth stage is tiredness, where she is exhausted and cannot talk about India, when people ask her. The last and final stage is culture shock where all things come into contact with each other causing this culture shock.