*communicating with (taxi) drivers - left, right, next to/nearby, where is...?, how much...?
*booking train tickets - window/aisle, ticket, berth, making requests (to the chaiwallahs and paniwallahs and so on on the train)
*hotels - asking to see rooms, about facilities (hot water? fans?), costs
*giving commands - could be a classroom setting, family, beggars, etc. I have found जाओ / jao (the informal command 'go!') works miracles with the somewhat tactile beggars we have up here, since they don't expect the white-skinned lady to know a word of Hindi.
*(fabric) shopping - how much, colours, cheap/expensive, I want ...; do you have ...; materials (silk, cotton, linen), etc. Vocab like this has been useful - as basic as mine is - for getting some nice shopping done outside of the tourist traps (Benarisi silk saris in Sarnath for 1/4 the price of getting them at a shop off the ghats in Benarisi proper, as an example - just required more Hindi!; also in Saharanpur's bazaar).
*food shopping - probably best as a video lesson; fruit & veg (basics & some of the 'odder' things, like new ginger, jackfruit, litchee, bitter gourd)
*work - what do you do, where do you do it? professions, locations (doctor/hospital; politician/office; taxi driver/everywhere; rshi/temple, etc)
*family - I would especially love a full list of all the relationship ties (चाचा, चाची and so on), since Indian families are nice and big and can be complicated!
*wedding etiquette - wedding words; single, engaged, married/not married; what Indian weddings are like. Probably also good as a video lesson.
*accepting/declining invitations - parties, weddings, etc. Good indirect Indian ways of saying 'no' beyond just जी नहीं which is so terribly western-direct.
[/list]
