most people hate India

"filthy" is the single most word that i probably hear associated with india. and it often comes from people that have never stepped foot on the planet. hmmm, did i just say planet? i guess that india does seem like a whole other planet to me. and i guess to others too.

my family just scratches their heads whenever i talk about india and always try and come up with reasons that i should not return when i announce that i am going back. last year my parents said that it was too close to iraq...

it took me some time to acclimate to india. i certainly did not like it right away. in fact, after i had been there for a few weeks i wrote a list entitled "Ten Things That i Hate About India". I think that the dirt issue topped the list.

But they are still amazed and horrified when I tell them that people shit on the pavements.

Anyway, who cares what the other people think. I hate football, a fact which will never bother millions of fans!

I went, I saw, I left. I don't think I'll ever go back.
It was dirty, I got sick for the first time ever! And the people are disgusting!

No need to be horrified nor any to be accepting

Tolerance will have to suffice

But I try to spend my time where they don't shit in the streets,

Where I go we all shit in the woods, the word 'woods' subjective of course

But it just plain seems differnt to shitting in the streets

So you actually hate it (or don't like it)? I can so imagine!!! Hating and loving India are so close together. I don't understand why I love it so much. I got sick also there and saw the most crazy things but still there is something undefinable with India to me. Maybe because I find Europe so boring since I was in india last time.....

what is it that digusts you so about the people? just curious since it is such an extreme and harsh statement to make.

what i most love about india is also what i most hate - the family dynamic. i admire the close knit extended family, something that we have largely lost here in my country. but i abhor the fierceness by which the family controls, which in my opinion is the cause of a lot of their problems.

many people hate things that they do not understand, have no experience with, or simply, fear.

I was in Chennai in September, but I started planning my trip during the summer of 2004. My husband was always very "anti-India", could not understand why I wanted to go, etc. etc. etc. He was like that for a long time, very negative about every aspect, until I said one day, "if you don't have anything positive to say about it, then don't say anything at all, because I will not allow myself to be brought down by your negativity." And then one day I asked him, "what are you afraid of? That when I come back I won't be the same person?", and that put it all into perspective. He was afraid -- afraid that I would "change", afraid that something would happen to me, afraid I would find some hunky yoga guy and never come back (yes, he did say that), and indeed, afraid of the idea that I had no fear at all, afraid of my equanimity.

The bottom line is that many people in this modern society live fear-based lives and have no idea they are living that way, or why.

I will go back to India in March, and now my husband says "see ya!". In fact, when I returned from my last trip, he said he was proud of me for going it alone.

MeCasa's statement is totally right-on. I know people who say they hate Chicago and they only live 40 miles outside the city (of course, they are the same people who also freaked out about my going to India by myself.) For all I know, my trip this time might totally suck, but I guess that would be a Buddhist lesson on the nature of impermanence, how all things change, and nothing stays the same.....

Stranger things I've seen.

In the 80's I was working in Boston and a new, young guy (early 20's) who lived in Nashua, New Hampshire (about 60 miles north of Boston), joined my project team. Two months into the project, we had to go to the midwest to the customer office. I called the new guy and asked him to book his ticket. He came right away to my office, closed the door looking all agitated. Says he can't go into Boston Airport because he won't drive in to the city and hates it. He couldn't stand the traffic, the street system, and the frenetic pace of life. He ended up taking a multi-stop flight from Nashua, instead of a direct flight from Boston Airport.

I agree that our mental attitude makes a difference in how we experience a place. However, for some, India simply won't do however hard they try, even if they are experience travellers. To each his/her own.

of course! to each his/her own. I know I could go to India every year, and my husband will never go with me, and he readily admits this to anyone who asks him "are you going this time?" Some people might say "what a shame he has no interest in going to India...", and to that I say "so what?".

I'm from Madras and I don't usually call it Chennai either. It's nice that you felt Madras was a good introduction to India, though I have mixed feelings about the phrase "surprisingly civilised"!
Arriving in Bangalore was fine, but relatives tell me that the drive from the airport can be bad in peak times.

Passingby

Sorry to hear that you found your first day in India difficult. If it is any consolation, I found Delhi the worst place in my recent India travels - the pollution, the touts, the traffic, below par accommodation, even the centre of Connaught Place is in chaos due to the buidling of the new metro.

Hopefully your finding it easier after the initial shock. How are you and what are your current plans?

Aussie 5

Modern society ... presumably equals western society .... perhaps? If so, this surprises me ... fear based lives ... few persons but society at large ... what is there to fear in the modern society ... on a daily life basis ...

Ofcourse, the larger existential fear and perhaps the only significant fear ... fear of death remains ... and answers to the question abound in India ... but society in general, all over including India is not much bothered about it ...

It is true. More often than not, India changes a person, relations. It is a very dangerous place to be.

Beautifully said. This is true. Very true. Ignore the family dynamics at your own peril.

[QUOTE=lotus blossom]what is it that digusts you so about the people? just curious since it is such an extreme and harsh statement to make.
QUOTE]

a. A dead man's conscience
b. 'I for one, God for all' attitude
c. Lack of basic civic sense
d. Love for the Paan and all that follows with it, including spitting indiscrimately
e. Spitting phlegm all over the pavements
f. Shitting on pavements, beaches etc...

India is a very beautiful country ..........it's the people that need to be educated . Sadly, the education churned out is to make people 'graduates' without basic values.....