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 India – the land to travel to, a haven of
tourism delights, a civilization to tour
through. Tourists come to India for its
wealth of sights, cultural exuberance,
diversity of terrain and in search of that
special something, an extra punch that only
India promises and delivers. Teeming with
over a billion people who voice over a
million concerns in fifteen hundred
different languages, India is where people
live with variety, thrive on diversity and
are too familiar with largeness to let it
boggle them. Mud huts and mansions face off
across city streets. Lurid luxury and limp
living are inhabitants of the same lane.
From the smoky mangroves of the Sunderbans
to the steaming Thar Desert, sizzling cities
like Mumbai and Delhi to the scintillating
villages of Khajuraho and Hampi, from the
heights of the Himalayas to the deep blue
waters around the Andamans, India is travel
heavan – a tour package that frustrates and
delights, as demanding as it is rewarding.
It demands that the traveller be prepared
for its own strange forms of tourism
offerings - the crowds at Pushkar, for pushy
mendicants at Haridwar, for high
commercialism at spiritual retreats. But
equally, it means that he be prepared for an
overwhelming warmth in the people, ease of
conversation, and to be stunned into
speechlessness by the beauty, sometimes the
manmade and often the natural.
But what exactly is it that gets two and a
half million people to pack their bags, book
their tickets, buy industrial size cans of
suntan lotion and enough toilet paper to
supply the entire population of
Liechtenstein for a month, and wing their
way to India? Given that this is the land of
the Taj, granted too that tea, tobacco,
tempestuous democracy and terrific travel
are a great combination but surely that's
not reason enough.
There must be more because between truisms
and half-truths, India has inspired more
than any one place's fair share of travel
lore. And, perhaps that's what it is - the
legends of India - that's what inspires
people from far and near to travel here, to
sort out for themselves what's true and
what's just a whole lot of tourism pamphlet
hype.
If that's what you're going to be doing,
here's a bit of India tourism mantra to help
you on your way: expect nothing and
everything will be yours. |
