India is a country that boasts of a diversity, beauty and grandeur few nations in the world can match. It is one of the few nations, where you can go from the desert to the mountains to the sea in just under 24 hours. It is a place where traditions, customs and habits change every few kilometers. India has everything that a tourist could wish for- towering mountain ranges, dense jungles, ancient historical monuments, miles of coastline, beautiful hill stations. Add to it, that the nation seems to be in festival mood for 365 days of the year.
But why do we attract so few tourists every year? Singapore which does not have any history to boast of, and is more of a giant shopping complex, gets more visitors every year. Dubai draws in more tourists not withstanding the meltdown, even though the city does not really have such great attractions. Why do so many go to the Niagara Falls, compared to the Jog Falls which to me are much more magnificent in their grandeur? Well I did find some answers while traveling around in India.
I remember watching the Ellora Caves, magnificent piece of architecture, one of the greatest feats of human endeavor, and as I walked along, I just found carved on the rocks was "X Loves Y" with an ugly heart shape. Damn, if you want to show your love, there are a dozen ways to do it, who gives you the right to spoil those monuments this way? I still recall visiting Amber Fort in Jaipur, and there at one place, a whole amount of rubbish was thrown around. A visiting family, was carelessly littering the place. Why do we treat our heritage so callously? Is it that we take the attitude of "I don’t care if the city stinks, as long as my home is clean" to the monuments also? To some one coming from outside, the pleasure in viewing the monuments is spoilt by the litter around them, the ugly graffiti on the walls and the careless attitude of both the authorities and people.
When I was in Chennai, I decided to go on a tour of Mahabalipuram and Kanchi with my wife and a friend of mine. So we booked a tour package. For starters there were around 14 of us, jammed into one small mini bus sort. The "guide" looked like some street side ruffian, paan stained mouth, and mumbling some nonsense. He hardly had any clue about the history of the place, and was more in a hurry to get us to the silk saree stores in Kanchi, I guess he had some deal with the store owner. The second time I visited the place, I just booked a cab and went on my own, it was much better. Same with the tour of Mysore-Ooty, again the guide who came there had no clue at all about the history of the place, and just mumbled something. As for the Ooty trip, it was more of a rush hour job, running from one place to another. Hardly any time to savor the views. The tour to Jaipur was somewhat better, in that the guide had some knowledge about the history of the place, but everything else was chaotic. The fact is most of the tour packages are one big joke, instead of giving you the pleasure, they just end up making you feel frustrated and tired.
Somehow the feeling seems to be that if the place has some tourist attractions or other, raise up the prices. Not all the foreigners who visit India are rich, in fact many of them are backpackers, seeking a modestly priced accommodation, where they can rest and stretch their legs. The problem is that most of the modestly priced hotels or resorts, are suffocating, mosquito infested places. And in case of places like Delhi’s Paharganj area, teeming with all kind of shady joints. Chilika Lake in Orissa is one of the most beautiful spots, but if you want to stay over for the night, perish the thought. No decent accommodation available.