"Don't go to India because ..." Prejudices and Misconceptions Collected

I completely agree with chAos. That guy did not write anything that wasn't true. It's exactly how he experienced everything. He did not come to India as a backpacker or seeking a cultural experience. He actually wasn't being insensitive, he was being very sensitive based on his own life experiences. He wasn't mean or nasty or obnoxious. He didn't claim to be an expert & was just stating what he saw & did.

He is unlikely to find IndiaMike very interesting because most of us don't go to India first class for a brief time & work for a big company, living luxuriously in 5 star hotels.

This person is far from a loser. He took the time to write everything down because he was amazed by it all.

But he certainly had one even in those few hours outside the hotel and the boardroom, still will get ya one way or the other - India. And Losing, winning - competitive world huh. Found it factual, lighthearted and sensitive. He was disturbed, so that's useful. I was disturbed because of knowing how many have perceptions that are much worse than this young fella.

Factual is one thing.. Balanced another. This sounds like a burst of frustration, and relief at getting back from India ( although I doubt anyone forced him to go there).

This description contained nothing positive other than his experience in his hotel, business class airline seat and the Lufthansa lounge! And this guy has to do business in India ( meaning keeping someone satisfied/happy in India)!!
I just question his level of maturity, what his expectations before the trip were, and what a waste his trip appears to have been.

From tiny seeds great Oaks can mature.

Just shows to go ya how different people can see things. I don't think his "email diary" was unbalanced or immature or a waste of time. He went there to work, he apparently got his job done. He wasn't comparing what he saw to anything at home, just expressing his surprise by things he never saw before.

Many people who take a luxury tour of India & are quite sheltered from the realities of the streets but see a little bit of it are really judgmental & hostile about the same things--freaking out, carrying on, being insulting.

This guy didn't do any of that.

I don't even know him, why am I defending him. Guess I kind of liked his email. I've met so many people who made me angry with ridiculous comments but this person seemed intrigued. Probably not enough to go back.

Indeed.
And your post was neither.

Dishonest too.

Ahh Boston 123 - Instant Karma! Better to give a person the benefit of the doubt rather than pass judgment because as always happens chAos will be bite back - who says there's no order...

Of course he had no intention of sending these words to a public forum - that's what makes it so interesting to read. Anyone writing something for public consumption will be careful what he writes, and not say how he really feels. This message is for private consumption only, so we can be pretty sure that this is what he actually thinks of his Indian experience.

Don't worry - his identity is safe. Even if 'Jim' is his real name, there are many people named 'Jim' in the world. There's no mention of his company name - I would challenge anyone to track him down from the information in that text!

Doing business in India with a 'Type A' personality must be extremely trying (at times) to those who attempt it. One should certainly have to walk a mile in 'their' shoes in order to be qualified to comment - but IMO a 'Type A' impatient, money driven workaholic is at a much greater disadvantage in 'warming up' to India than a laidback 'Type B' backpacker would be.

I read that letter a few days ago and thought, "So what?"
It's mostly true ( maybe a bit one-sided) but that's how India is. It's like landing on another planet. Some people revel in it, others just don't get it.

You can either keep your preconceived ideas of how things are supposed to be and go back to the west none the wiser, or you can let go and let it carry you where it will.

The guy experienced something new and didn't have the inclination or the time to figure it out. Happens to all of us when abroad on work. He seems more bemused than anything else by the onslaught on the senses that any foreign culture throws at you.

And he wrote a private email about it.

His experience is valid, and at least I don't think his email should be dissected in a way it was never meant to be.



Spare a thought for the Type A Indians out here, then

Indian Type Aers are, as a rule, more mentally prepared & can thus justify & 'manage' the impatience/time-conscious obstacle - much better than that first time, gungho business executive clasping a stopwatch & bullwhip ever might be able to.

But how difficult it is to not pass a comment, rather than being a constipated non poster!

Just read it properly.

There are details there that might be disagreed with. For instance I don't know any never-ending shanty towns, but his shanty-town is probably my lower-middle-class residential area. He would probably think I live in a slum --- its just a point of view, comparing to what one is used to.

The only other thing is the power cuts; not a couple of times a week, but daily, and, in some places at some times, for several hours a day.

It's a dispassionate and honest reaction to a place the guy came to on business, rather than because he was smitten with some kind of emotional draw. I found it quite refreshing, in a way.

I certainly did not find it immature; just inexperienced. We could pick holes, but then, we could equally pick holes in our, more usual, and equally inexperienced, "isn't it all wonderful" early reactions to India, including my own.

I think this guy who wrote this email about his experience in India had very little or no experience of life other than life in America. He may have known a country called India and may have thought it will be some where in the American continent and will have very similar culture and will be speaking the same language and have similar food etc etc. How wrong he was…… No wonder it shoked him.

Last year we went on a 3 weeks trip in California and we were speaking to an American lady and discussing life in England and America. She commented that life in USA is like driving an automatic transmission car; you don’t need to know anything about the car, all provided, just drive. She also said that kids think that “mother’s milk also comes out of automatic transmission”. I think she was a bit over the top but I got the jest;

I think we should forget about this email and get back to the real discussion;
“Don’t go to India unless you want to know what India is all about”