One of the best things about the majority of the food you eat in India is just how fresh it. Take for example the seafood in the photo below, they were caught less than an hour before we took this photo and were sold within a few minutes of hitting the sales table.
Fishing in India
If you are like me then it will surprise you to know that Judaism was one of the first foreign religions to come to India. And what I find even more fascinating is that Jewish people have been able to live in India virtually free of antisemitism, having settled in the State of Kerala, near Cochin where we took these pictures some 2500 years ago.
Seems like some people could learn a few lessons from these Keralites regarding tolerance.
Jewish Synagogue in Cochin
Jews in India
The first time I travelled to India I experienced the typical foreigner shock, the heat, stifling humidity, incessant horn blowing, and never ending requests for money from the poor or would-be poor.
What I wasn’t prepared for however were the incredibly intrusive questions and as a Canadian, the land of PC and fence sitters, these request for personal statistics caught me completely off guard, and because of this experience and the many more I have had since, I feel compelled to share with newcomers to India my Top 10 list of things foreigners should know about India and its people prior to travelling to India for the first time and for those of us who frequent India, to always remember. Here is my personal list and observations:
1.Intrusive questions: By nature, Indians are really inquisitive people and their culture is one where people do anything but mind their own business, often due to the lack of personal space and privacy in India. As a result, don’t be surprised or offended if an Indian asks you how much you earn for a living and whether or not you are married within the first moments of initial meeting. This along with a host of other personal questions is quite normal and truly not meant to be offensive. What’s more, you should feel free to ask these type of questions in return. And instead of them taking offense they will be pleased that you’ve taken such an interest in them!
2.Unwanted Attention: Some or most Indians will unabashedly stare at foreign tourists, especially in the not so tourist rich cities. And in turn the tourists become magnets for persistent touts and beggars. This at first seems charming, even a bit magical perhaps one might feel a bit like a rockstar, but that quickly fades and is replaces with beggars, especially malnourished children and the badly deformed can be particularly disturbing.
3.Noise: Drivers lean on their horns constantly, and for no reason. Radios and TVs blare Bollywood tracks, even temples, mosques and churches use loudspeakers to spread their message. My personal favourite is the guy yelling “PAPER” at the top of his lungs every morning before 7am, trying to convince you to give him your recylcing.
4.Pollution: every Indian city I have visited suffers badly from pollution. Exhaust combined with dust and humidity leave you with a nice layer of film on your skin after a day of sightseeing. A day where you can expect to see cows meandering the streets, eating garbage, and leisurely strolling the packed roadways without a care in the world. Cows truly are Kings in India.
5.Crowds, again typical, except perhaps what the crowds are made up of, jam-packed with people, vehicles, and the occasional elephant, the every present cow, the often seen cow, a wild dog perhaps and the infrequent ox..
6.Toilets: India has a combination of what is called “squatter” or Indian toilets and western toilets. You will find in all major hotels standard western toilets, however often they lack tissue paper. And if you find yourself out and about and in need of the facilities do not be shocked to find you will have to use a squatter and make sure to bring some tissue paper.
7.Traffic: The best way to describe the traffic in India is organized chaos. The traffic at any given time contains a complete array of motor vehicles (4-wheelers), stray dogs, motorcycles (or 2 wheelers) with sometimes up to 5 people riding at a time, lorries, buses, cows, auto rickshaws and ox draw carts. No one pays any attention to the lines on the road – it is “every man for himself”. Police are generally active at all major intersections and there appear to be to adherence to any traffic laws – but somehow it all works and there is rarely if ever road rage!
8.Never say NO: For some reason Indian’s have a very difficult time saying NO, so even if they do not know the proper direction to the place you are trying to find they will often give you false directions. They mean no harm; they just feel bad for not be able to help. Other times they will go out of their way to find someone to help.
9.Smiling Faces: Unbeknownst to me everywhere I have travelled in India, the people are smiling. They smile while driving in a luxury car, while riding on the back of a 2- wheeler with 3 other family members (or so I assume), they smile while walking in the scorching heat and humidity. No matter the climate, time of day, or circumstance a smile is always my initial greeting.
10.Entrepreneurial Spirit: Having worked in sales and management for most of my adult life I always amazed and in absolute awe of the entrepreneurial spirit of the Indian people. They can always find a use for something, feel compelled to reuse items and are never let down by being knocked back by the word no to the often sought after sale.
Submitted by Melanie from www.mysticalindiatravel.com
Historians, writers, politicians and other eminent personalities across the Globe have greatly appreciated India and its contribution to rest of the world. Though these remarks are only a partial reflection of the greatness of India, they certainly make us feel proud of our motherland.
“We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made!”
- Albert Einstein (Theoretical Physicist, Germany)
“India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most artistic materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!”
- Mark Twain (Writer, America)
“If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India!”
- Romaine Rolland (French scholar)
“She (India) has left indelible imprints on one fourth of the human race in the course of a long succession of centuries. She has the right to reclaim … her place amongst the great nations summarizing and symbolizing the spirit of humanity. From Persia to the Chinese sea, from the icy regions of Siberia to Islands of Java and Borneo, India has propagated her beliefs, her tales, and her civilization!”
- Sylvia Levi (French Scholar)
“Civilizations have arisen in other parts of the world. In ancient and modern times, wonderful ideas have been carried forward from one race to another…But mark you, my friends, it has been always with the blast of war trumpets and the march of embattled cohorts. Each idea had to be soaked in a deluge of blood….. Each word of power had to be followed by the groans of millions, by the wails of orphans, by the tears of widows. This, many other nations have taught; but India for thousands of years peacefully existed. Here activity prevailed when even Greece did not exist… Even earlier, when history has no record, and tradition dares not peer into the gloom of that intense past, even from until now, ideas after ideas have marched out from her, but every word has been spoken with a blessing behind it and peace before it. We, of all nations of the world, have never been a conquering race, and that blessing is on our head, and therefore we live….!”
- Swami Vivekanand (Indian Philosopher)
“If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India.”
- Max Mueller (German Scholar)
“India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.”
- Hu Shih (Former Ambassador of China to USA)
“There are some parts of the world that, once visited, get into your heart and won’t go. For me, India is such a place. When I first visited, I was stunned by the richness of the land, by its lush beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to overload the senses with the pure, concentrated intensity of its colors, smells, tastes, and sounds. It was as if all my life I had been seeing the world in black and white and, when brought face-to-face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant technicolor.”
- Keith Bellows (Editor-in-chief, National Geographic Society)
Mystical India Travel
