Am getting really, really scared about going to India :(

Hi NomadicBoo & Skaktipalooza, yes I am flying into Delhi. However, the organisation that I am volunteering with are arranging for a representative to meet me at the airport and talke me to Majnuka Tila for the night. From there I will be taken to the bus station and will get the bus to Mcloed. So i'll be pretty well looked after when I arrive This makes me feel a lot more confident about my initial arrival!
Thanks

Hi Nick, thanks for your advice! Yeah I think by the time I go I will definitely be very, very prepared , probably over prepared.
With regards to the article, i'm certainly not naive to the things he points out its just that he made it sound entirely and constantly unpleasant. Like I mentioned before though, I realise this forum wouldn't exist if that were the case.

Anywho, thanks for your help!

Having lived here for over seven years now, I can rant about India err... as much as I can rant about London, where I spent the previous thirty (Oh, and by the way, I'm not going back). But it would be absurd to say that either was entirely or consistently unpleasant! No... it is not.

It doesn't suit everybody. One person that I know, a lady of Indian origin from elesewhere in the world, and a fluent Hindi speaker, managed only the first few days of her first attempt at India --- but her second trip went better. Yes, people post here, "I'm here and hating it..." and, usually, the answer is to get out of where they are and try doing something else somewhere else.

If a city hole is driving a person to despair... seek some rural beauty! We do have everything from tropical beaches, through deserts, to mountains!

Now I'm talking like the Tourist Board!

I was frightened of visiting India, mainly of being unable to cope emotionally with seeing people living and dying on the street, dreadful living conditions and poverty etc. Because of this I chose to start by going to the state of Kerala for my first visit. I am glad I did. People work and sell hard but I came accross only 3 people begging whilst there. They had obvious disabilities ie from polio rather than inflicted upon them. I see more in my home town here. The people in Kerala seemed glad to see us, mainly out of genuine curiosity. Although many have hard lives, standards of education, health etc are higher than in many other states due to their occasional communist governments I imagine. Kerala is beautiful. The people are friendly I had the best food ever and was well for the month I was there.

Hehe, your tourist board suggestions are very much appreiated I'm from London too! I have lived in Brighton for the last 5years but grew up all over London! When I meet people from other countries and say i'm from London, I get a lot of "oh it's really dangerous there isn't it" I guess it's all relative!
Yeah I want to avoid very crowded cities as much as possible so heading straight for the mountains! Thanks again!

Hey Jacky, thanks for responding! Yes, thats a big worry for me too, feeling helpless for the people I see suffering and maybe not coping with it!
I would love to go to Kerala, it's one of two places that i'd like to see in the south. That and Pondicherry. Though they are literally on the other side of the country from HP so I'll have to see if i make it! x

Well, this does not hold true for all areas of all cities, but... I can keep a mobile phone in my breast pocket here; I feel much safer on the streets here...

(well, apart from the driving of course... )

It wouldn't surprise me if the guy who wrote the article will publish a follow up in a year or two, writing about how he felt compelled to return and began to like the place.

Just read that article. Wow. I think his mistake was in trying so hard to make sense of it all. Sometimes you just need to observe and accept that it is what it is.

India's troubles and difficulties are not there as tourist attractions.

Neither is India obliged to do anything about them for the sake of visitors, only for the sake of Indians.

Yes, you need to accept what it is as what it is, but that does not mean not to notice and not to comment.

I believe the word 'observe' is synonymous with notice. I guess the problem with many Westerners is that we think we can 'fix' everything. A lot of the author's frustration, I think, stemmed from his sense of helplessness. Just my opinion, of course.

Yes, Alliecat, I agree. A great deal of frustration, in India, stems from a sense of helplessness, and not just for visitors, or even just for non-Indians. Plenty of Indians I know, on- and off-line feel it regularly.

Same thing everywhere, of course, although India seems to be able to manage extremes and intensities that other places fail to reach.

Hello! Yes it's been a long time with many changes in my life. We've made it half way to India, now living in Taiwan which is a shockingly short 6 1/2 direct flight away.

I'll be more active for a while since I'm heading back to India in October and possibly September of this year. Want to see Dussehra and perhaps spend a couple of weeks in Varanasi.

Cheers!!

Yes, I think you hit the nail on the head! Anyone could go crazy trying to figure it all out, but it is half the fun

And Alliecat, you make a good point, guessing his frustration comes from a feeling of helplessness about what he saw in India...now I feel a bit sorry for him, thanks for turning that around.

Oh! <spots what it says in your 'location'> so you are!

Do I remember correctly that living in India didn't work out for you and your family? so, even if still "fascinating" (yes it is) you don't have so many illusions about the "maddening" aspects?

Many of India's maddening aspects are not really to the fore without living here anyway. Again it is the same with many places: after thirty years in London, I was glad to say goodbye, but it is now a place that I really enjoy visiting. Of course, all the same old stuff that used to drive me insane is still there, but somehow, for a matter of a few weeks it doesn't get noticed so much.

Anyway, home is home, and whereever that is has always been my favourite place. I love arriving at Chennai airport. I love it even more now I live here