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

Welsh_exile

I'll take that as a compliment....

PeakXV

When I suggested the term animosity, I meant it in the sense that people who display prejudice and bigotry, are (to my mind) being hostile towards place/culture/social structure/etc. In some respects, these people can't get their head around the fact that other places/cultures/social structures are equal to or better than their own. Put simply, they appear poorly informed and to address their lack of knowledge they use attack. Sad, but...

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my girlfriends mom is convinced we're both going to be captured by terrorists in India or we are going to be caught in the fallout of a nuclear war lol

She's probably afraid to leave her house also.

I guess I should be more understanding because many moons ago when I took a bus overland to India, my parents thought I would be the only girl on a bus with scary foreign men who would hurt me. I called them from Dover (as we waited for the ferry to cross the Channel) to tell her there were lots of young men & women and I was quite safe. I was the only American, but they didn't hold it against me. It's easy to let your imagination go wild when you don't know about something.

Offer to take her with you. Just kidding.

I met a man in Goa many years ago and he lold me that his mother was afraid that he might "catch bacteria" whilst visiting India.tee hee, chortle, chortle,guffaw guffaw.

I was working in Amsterdam in the early 70's and the "Magic Bus" used to leave Dam Square once or twice a week - 50 quid to Kathmandu - I'd often got £50 in my pocket in those days and was often tempted to just hop on. Never did though - kept my nose to the grindstone and my mouth to the beerglass <g>

AndyD 8-)#

Mine friend told me that i should be careful down there as crime rate is very high!
I was like..WTF,i bet that there are places in US(cities)which have higher rate of(violent)crime compared to anywhere in India.
Although i do feel that it is better to dodge Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir during charas season..
This is from another forum and i feel it is truth;
"The most danger you'll get into in India is being in any moving vehicle on a road."
I would add;and being hit by one
Best!

MaaaanThat is tempting..i am adventurer,think i would jump in after some planing

You are great danger as a pedestrian on an Indian road: you don't need to be in a vehicle!

Yes, it is definitely safer in a vehicle than being a pedestrian!

My Auntie said I would be kidnapped.

Human ignorance knows no bounds

Well - if you watched those Jailed Abroad programs on TV, or read about the odd kidnapping for ransom that crops up fairly often in the news, then yes, your Aunty probably wasn't having a misconception, David.

Last trip btw, I go into a Paharganj cyber cafe on the second floor or so, sit there typing for an hour, get up to leave a little groggily and disoriented, and want to walk out the door. Which, I realize just in time, is in fact one of those wall-sized sliding window panes out into the streets, the exit being the other way around

So, er, don't go to India lest you end up squashed over the streets below, I guess. And, er, mind your step if you do

I've watched those shows and it seems that kidnapping does happen! That doesn't mean it doesn't happen in other places in the world... but... you've always got to be cautious. One show about two girls accepting an offer for chai and then being kidnapped and raped in Jaisalmer particularly affected me, as I am a female girl who has travelled with another female friend to India twice (and will again for a thrid time next year) and we have often accepted chai invites into peoples homes. YES, that sounds silly without any context, but to the best of our ability we've been certain that the offers that we accepted were made by decent people. So far we've made good choices.... let's hope the good luck continues.

Kidnapping certainly happens here, although perhaps not as commonly as in some parts of the world, and it is the family of a wealthy businessman that is likely to be targeted, although there are more downmarket cases.

Kidnapping a tourist? Never! How would they set about getting the ransom? Just not practical.

On this show there was a 'ring' in Rajasthan that kidnapped some foreign women, and then forced them to hand over their bank card and pin number - once the kidnappers had withdrawn the money they desired and indulged in their desired pleasures with the women, they let them go. Agreed, impractical, but... humans are capable of many weird, awful and wonderful things.