I have a very good friend from Lebanon (migrated from Jerusalem). She definitely knows more about India than me. She has read hundreds of books about India and said till yesterday that it is the most fascinating land she has ever known. What happened yesterday you mean? Oh yesterday, she came back from her north India trip. Earlier she had visited Eastern (Darjiling, Sikkim et.c), Southern (Kerala mainly) and Western (Goa) part of India and was awed with everything there. Few days ago she planned to visit northern part of India. I suggested her to visit Varanasi, Agra and some more tourist places. For some reasons she chose to travel around in India this time by train…and that’s it. She came back shattered. Not about the place but people. Her summery was people in north of India are unimaginably bad behaved. They are far from human in treatment. I myself is from north and do not agree with her completely. But I do agree with her about north Indian treatment to tourists. Tourists in north are treated like commodities. You can do whatever you want and get away with it. And most surprisingly government goes on to spend in crores to promote it's state but does nothing to protect tourists from its bizarre popultion over there. My friend says experience at Mugal Sarai station was worse. Thanks god she was travelling in group.
No matter how much we criticize Australia or even our own Raj and Udhav for racism and regionalism, we in north has to change our behavior towards humans of another race and country. Stop treating them as free ATM open to be looted. Delhi is considered one of the rudest city in entire world. We need some introspection and improvisation desperately. It is already too late. I was horrified to see a news package from Delhi which showed how horribly some black students were treated in capital who had come to India for study. There are some serious race issues down under I am afraid.
One more incident my friend Sandip was telling in the morning. His friend Aakanksha who had come to Delhi from Mumbai to work for a TV channel got slapped in her lower back by a motorist. She took down the bike's licence number and went to police. Police traced and arrested the culprit. Within two hours there were 50 jats assembled in that chowki to get his release. Under the presser police had to release him immediately. Hypocratic isn't it? But what better do you expect?
It is inhuman behavior in a human city that i am worried about. Rude and intolerant behavior in the Indian capital makes me thinking specially when the commonwealth game is just around the corner. Then thousands of cameras from across the world will be looking for off beat stories. Delhites you better change this time.
And its not only the people, I think whole system is racist for that matter. Let me give you an example that something particularly irritating for a 'white man'. Wherever he goes in India, he has to pay a special rate. Whether he visits the Taj Mahal where the 'white' tourist has to cough up Rs 750 to see the mausoleum, or a national museum, or even hotels or airlines, there is a true racial discrimination.
Rates are often ten times higher for those who have a 'white' or 'yellow' (Japanese) skin. Those who have made these rules do not understand that this policy harms India's image.
The desire to make a quick buck from the so-called rich tourists leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of the visitors who in any case would have spent their budget during the stay in India. To my knowledge, India must be the only nation in the world implementing these separate rates. And i am sure it is not going to change as in our country change only comes in actual term of votes and tourists can not vote anywhere in the world.
Indians are going global and they surely get looked down upon for their policies and behavior back home. Its time we get our act sorted before calling ourselves a superpower.
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