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

PeakXV

On my first trip to India I seemed to get as many warnings as good wishes.
For example one person said to me that "there are terrorists there that chop off people's heads" alluding to a single event that happened to a backpacker in Kashmir back in 1995.

It's like the old expression "if you shit your pants once .. that's all anybody will remember "- so it goes with Ma India.

An older fellow said to me "don't become a vegetarian now!" half jokingly but seemingly still wary and unsure of the Hari Krishna movement and its association with India. Delhi Belli, Cockroaches you name it people have developed phobias and slight negative-isms about the place.

Any other good/ridiculous warnings of farewell ?

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We shall not cease from exploration and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started ...and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot

Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

Gamine

Someone suggested quite emphatically that I should, for safety, dye my blonde hair black. I'm not so sure it would do any good, since I also have blue eyes and fair skin...I guess I'll take my chances

jyotirmoy

Please dont carried away by these. Didnt some one tell you that India is a place where Yogis do the rope trick at every street corner, tigers roaming the streets of Kolkata, snake charmers are charming snakes at every nook & corner & holy bulls chasing people all around..... ha ha ...ha

Digital Drifter

those chaps in India still travel by elephants and those Maharajahs, the less said the better.

& oh, wierdo tantric sex.

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Click here for the Indiamike train guide in PDF

PeakXV

You see with IM - you can get instant feedback from the natives

Tigers in Kolkata still .... my grandfather was right after all

Gamine: Don't go to India because your hair is too blonde

jyotirmoy

And what about dirty Indians, louts & touts? What about Typhoid, Malaria, Dyptheria, Teetanus, Rabies? What about beggars, Sadhus, dusty roads? What about roses, jasmines, spices, coconuts, smell of food wafting out of a dhaba? What about tandoori chicken being roasted in a tandoor? What about a sun set in the western coast or a sun rise in the himalayas? Didnt any one frighten you with all these?

haritha

still like that in India

PeakXV

I was told don't go you'll hate it "people pee on the street"

When I got there found it wasn't true - because of all the traffic

Sidewalks and alleys ....... maybe every now and then

PeakXV

I wonder if the Hippie generation were fore-warned when they headed off in the 60's and 70's ... "Don't go to India or you'll end up half naked in Goa in a trance walking about with a coconut lantern"... Or was that a time when people just did as they pleased and nobody dared offering any advice?

bijapuri

don't goto India beacuse u will turn jungli

that's what most of it can be distilled into, na?

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Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.
Barack Obama

lookit me!!!: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bijapuri/

Utube fuzzy logic:
http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=bijapuri&p =r

rangss

Don't come to India because you will hate it and when you leave it, you will miss it.

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...and I took the road less travelled.

Casey

I took food from strangers, on a train no less...I ate fruit that was cut for me, I didn't peel it myself...I ate fresh squeezed juice and lassis without a care...I laughed with cab drivers and took rikshaws from outside my guesthouse (and not once was I taken where I didn't want to go)...I didn't always offer 50% of the asking price...I once wore shorts (in Goa and Hampi)...And I am going back to do it all again!

PeakXV

I was told as well don't eat the street food - ever. After about 2 weeks with
no troubles - I was at Nehru Place with collegues and they peer-pressured me into eating some street carrot halwa qith them. It tasted GR8 but after about 10 minutes I was doubled over in pain and felt I swallowed a baby kangaroo .... I then discovered Pudina Hara - the famous green bombs - everything returned to normal.

lotus blossom

the first time i was there my sister's husband told my parents that i needed to get out of there cuz it was dangerous. it had my parents even more riled.

last time i went, nearly a year ago now, my parents told me that it was too close to iraq...i told them that they were , to look at a map not a tiny globe.

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Not all who wander are lost

phobal

1 beheading in the last 10 years in a nation of 1 billion is a pretty good stat..