No, homely is not unattractive looking to Indians. The term is commonly used in matrimonial ads to describe a woman “who can cook, clean, and does not have any ‘modern’ ideas.”
In India you can’t just postpone a meeting, but “prepone” it as well. And if your colleague wants to tell you a “non-veg” joke, it isn’t meat he is talking about, but some dirty humor.
A new website Samosapedia is attempting to use crowd-sourcing to compile a guide to Indian English.
The next time you need to figure out what Indians mean when they rave about a woman who is “traditional with a modern outlook,” Samosapedia is the place for you: “Usually refers to a woman representing the ideal catch for the contemporary Indian male. Ahh the good fortune of finding Seethalakshmi (alias Lexi)! She speaks the vernacular, she toasts the coconut before putting it in the keerai kootu, touches periamma’s feet at all family functions, and knows how to sport a 9-yard in the 40*C swelter of Chennai. But in the privacy of youthful company she knocks back the Old Monk Rum and Thumbs Up as she explains how Kegels enhance the female orgasm.”