Eight Reasons to Visit India

Some of my friends are rather apprehensive to visit India. Perhaps my accounts (verbal and otherwise) of the trip has made them even more reticent to visit the land of a billion people. To help clarify why I feel every one who has the time should visit India atleast once in their lifetime, I've come up with eight reasons. I could have come up with ten , but ten sounds too official. I could have narrowed it down to seven, but seven looks like a prescription. so I stuck to eight. Eight of my reasons why you should visit India atleast once in your lifetime.

 

8: The Dollah Goes a Long Way

Well, this probably seems obvious, but if you spend judiciously, and understand that haggling is part of the Indian culture, the US dollar (or any western currency for that matter) can go a long way. What would be called a budget vacation in Europe could end up paying for a princely stay in India. I personally found it amusing that once the mall staff recognized you were a 'high-roller', they assigned personal helpers who carried your bags for you etc. Believe it or not, if you plan it right, the most expensive part of the stay will probably be the air tickets! 

7: You Can't Get Away From It

India, in the words of George Soros, has become the flavor of the world. The odds that you'll be working with someone from the Indian subcontinent are going up. In the last three years of my professional life, I've without exception had atleast a one interaction every month with Indian outsourcing companies. So, what a better way to break ice and to understand your Indian colleague than to say 'I've been to India'?

6: To Ride on Indian Roads.

Indian roads are notorious famous for their by-your-seat excitement. Let me tell you something, no nintendo-playstation-xbox piece of sh*t software can come close to replicating the mixture of terror and excitement that you get by driving on Indian roads. Imagine driving on a two-lane road, and two cars coming on both lanes straight at you, and you'll know what I'm talking about.

5: The cauldron of contradictions 

Learn first hand the cauldron of contradictions that is India. If I you see opulent wealth, you will also see heart-wrenching poverty. If you focus on the seemingly countless languages and ethnicities, you'll miss out on how somehow these disjoint people find it in themselves to be called Indians. One second you're making statements like "India is <blank>" only to be disproven the next minute. Try it! Make a stereotype, and watch it come crumbling down.

4: See Bollywood

Well, if you think Bollywood is a real place, well just look it up in Wikipedia. The bottom line is you get to witness the world's largest movie industry (by ticket sales) and see how stars are look up as almost demi gods. Also, you can then laugh at Colbert's skits like you really understand them!

3: Witness Less is More

To Learn that people can do a whole lot more with so less. For example, the famed Indian Institutes of Technologies (IITs) are known for its illustrious alumni, from Sun co-founder Vinod Khosla, to former McKinsey world-wide Managing Director Rajat Gupta. However, IIT's Delhi campus, while big, probably has less quality facilities than an upscale Orange County high school.

2: Food!

If you think the lunch buffet at the neighborhood Indian resturaunt (ubiquitously named either some derivation of Tandoor, India Cook House, India Sweet's and Spices, or Nataraj) is Indian food, you are in for the lesson of your life. Read my earlier blog on this subject.

1: Get a "I Survived India" T-Shirt

And the number 1 reason you should visit India, is that you can visit one of the Tantra's many stores in India and buy a T-Shirt that says "I Survived India", or settle for paying five times the cost over the web. Tantra are these cool T-Shirts that attempt to portray many of India's contributions and quirkiness through humorous T-Shirt emblems (not all of which are kid friendly ;-) ).

Note, that these are my reason's. If you're looking for Ministry of Tourism material, click here.

 

PS: Now while India is special, its certainly not the only special one. So for those reading this blog from other countries, please do come up with eight reasons of your own, and just post it as a trackback. Perhaps we can start an internet chain and give the global tourism industry a big push! In times like these, we need understand each other more, not less.

Comments

[Kartik Agaram]

Something more catchy, if a little un-PC :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owK5tHjL0aE

[angela rohen]

I visited Chennai in the fall of 09 for about 3 weeks to see my husband who was on a 6 month contract assignment--thanks for this, you put it into just the right words and i could not agree more with your top 8--love love love the people--

[TJ]

Thank you for your comments Angela, my next trip to India will include Chennai, and I fully expect to be surprised and awed, given I haven't been back there in 15 years.