View of a tourist..

I am an avid traveller. I can say with some humility a globe trotter.
It is always a nice feeling to visit a new land. With all the planning right from the visa processing buying tickets booking hotels and till the return to motherland after a dizzying tour it is indeed a learning experience.
But after every tour I get a question creeping into my mind " is this what I wanted to 'see'  in that land?
We go abroad on packaged tours . They are well organised and well executed . They are polished and meticulous to the micro level. We board a comfortable bus. Laugh with the guide who is unbelievably friendly and witty.
We get down where they ask us to and board at the point ordered by them. Look at the places buildings entertainments and the museums as they want us to.
We are happy to be retiring at a luxury hotel after a tiring yet fulfilling day.
And then get up next day only to repeat the same schedule at some other place.

A shopping here and an exotic lunch there and some stroll down the famous lanes keep us happy.

They also satisfy our thirst for a 'feel of the place'.

But do we really get the experiences right?

The culture or the history is never really felt in these tours. The touring areas are a different world from reality.

But we get no choice. If we want to study their culture we have to live there for a longer time to get a ring side view.

That is not possible. So we got to settle down to the gift wrapped package tours.

But I am pretty sure this is not so with foreign tourists coming to India our Mother land.

There is never a place ear marked to be kept only for tourist view!

Our temples market places and palaces or the famous Taj mahal ( we can go on and on) are all open to all cultural activities and we do not have any inhibition about some foreign eyes watching us . We carry on with our worships or trading or sightseeing. No self conscious behaviours. We dance in front of the dead body or pee in public.We burst crackers on the street for both mourning and celebrating.there is always a festival or celebration going on. Eiether for relegious reason or some political reason people  are ready for blarring mikesers or cutouts swaying over head. They are  part of the every day activites and no concession for them! The tourists need not worry about 'behaving' in public.

Monuments are left to weather on and no special polished version of them for tourism sake!  There will be a peanut shop or a cooldrinks shop. Or some fancy jewellary shops around the monument making the tourist to go back in time when these monuments were once throbbing with trades like these.

They are lucky unlike we Indians to see what they want to see and see them in their true colours.

Lucky foriegn tourists! They get their money's worth!

We are both the best guest in a foreign land and the best host in our home land.

I am proud of it!