moving to Dharmsala, gulp help!!!

In a totally different thread, someone asked if they could build a guesthouse in India and run it as their own business. The answer was that, subject to heap of conditions, and what would would probably be a huge heap of difficulties, yes they could.

Oddly, it didn't require any sort of argument about youth, spirituality or positive thinking, and the thread seems to have died away after a very few posts.

In another thread, a guy who has a letter of invitation to stay indefinitely at a temple in India, asks what visa makes this possible. So far as the knowledge/experience of those who answered the thread is concerned, there is no such visa. That thread didn't need any arguments about the spiritual aspects involved either. It would be wonderful if that guy finds a way, and comes back and tells us about it.

It might be because of my age, getting on noticeably now, but I continue to think that it is utterly irresponsible, presented with a question equivalent to "can I just move to India", or something that presupposes doing that, to say anything other than "no you can't just move to India". I have been there. I decided to move to India. I could not just move to India.

There are a small number of ways in which a person can spend an extended period of time in India. There is only one, that I can think of, that allows one to do anything like just moving to India, and even that carries no permanence: if my wife kicked me out of the house, the government would kick me out of the country!

I love dilbharatmain's success story, and a future in India can certainly be built up this way. It is possible to open certain businesses in India, and there are IMers who have done it and are doing it. I'm sad that it didn't work out in the end. But yes, things have changed since then, and, of late, far from opening up, it is getting tougher and tougher to even get back-to-back tourist visas, or business visas that allow stays of more than 180 days.

Anyway, enough of this... I'll go and be bitchy somewhere else

How many of us actually followed advice given to us when we were that age? I know I didn't and i agree with Kullukid that it is best to find out for yourself, then there are no regrets. I don;t believe in living life vicariously through other people's experience and I would not advice anyone to do it.

Anyway why should anyone believe in a bunch of people sitting anonymously on computers belching out advice?

Please don't go, old fogey's have been called out for some minor abuse and we need to stick together.

And besides, you really do sum things up so well!

Yipes, I didn't know that if Mrs. N kicks you out, you can't stay in India! Harsh. But I'm hoping she let's a nice geezer like you stay!

excuse me, didn't think you could hear.

Actually, I've gotten some excellent advice here on IM.

Oh, I've been told no few times in private and in public the collective advice and insights (and anecdotes and sidesteps and whatnot) here, varied as they are and whether affirming given viewpoints or not, really made a difference to some people; if only to make them feel better prepared for what they were looking at, not least in other than immediately travel-related respects as well.

It's enough to keep me going. If it were all "Sure, just go ahead & have a nice time," there wouldn't be much of a forum worth reading or consulting, would there.

Certainly; better yet, why would one ask anything of them to begin with?

But kk (and livinhimalayas, too), she did come here and ask us old farts for advice, after all, presumably because she thought we might know a thing or two that would be useful to her. We didn't go out and kidnap her and force her to listen to either visa advice or religious proselytizing about what (at least according to some people) she "needs to hear" in the way of religious views. Anyway, I fail to see how telling someone about the technicalities of visa and immigration requirements amounts to putting "past fears" into anyone.

As several others have pointed out, we've seen people here who actually didn't even know they needed a visa (with all the attendant time limits), or who - based on experience traveling to places other than India - thought they could get a visa on arrival. One such individual's entire trip to India blew up at the last minute because she had not applied for a visa and it was only a day before her plane was to leave - and she didn't live in a place where she could walk in, drop off her application, and pick it up the same day. So chalk that one up to a "carefree young person" finding something out for herself. She didn't enjoy the experience.

We've seen people, who, ignorant of India's property acquisition laws, sell up, lock, stock and barrel at home, and "move" to India and "buy" property there -- only to find themselves on the receiving end of an inquiry by the Indian government and possible confiscation of the property, or facing the harsh reality that they hadn't actually bought the property legally in the first place (with their life savings!) but at best had only a lease, plus the possibility of never qualifying for anything but short term tourist visas in the future. (See the 1,800 posts in the two-part "foreigners buying property in Goa" thread).

Maybe as a "carefree young (or old) person" you would have preferred to find these things out for yourself, but if I had floated such plans to a bunch of presumably knowledgeable individuals on a discussion forum and they didn't give me a heads-up, I'd be very PISSED OFF! So all of you who are acting as if practical, "negative" advice is going to cramp some prospective traveler's style need to get your heads out of your ... well, you know where. And speaking of that, nothing cramps your style like traveling with your head up there, either.

Tell me: did you post the comment above before or after you posted (or should I say "belched out"?) the following comment (and the ones leading up to it) in this thread Trip to Gangotri and Gaumukh

Just asking ...

Well, yes; and moreover and as I'm not the first to note, if anything and far from having been "told off," Sunspirt seems to be happily hanging in there (or at least hanging on to IndiaMike), and sort of finding her way on and around the forum, and perhaps with a few more realistic views and details gained in the process May well help to see her off to India in the end like she'd planned, possibly even to her increased satisfaction, go figure!

I've been less satisfied about threads' outcomes really. Meanwhile, you can blow all your Vedantic and related (or not-so related) yada-yada out of the you-know-where, if you don't mind me saying so.

(It's another of those common flawed approaches isn't it: When faced with some obstructions, instead of going "But! I really love the place and so really want to go!" -- as if that were an argument that usually makes immigration officers tick --, some others will go "But! I'm a true believer!" [Whatever that may mean precisely. Or how's about the "But! What if I called myself a student of this-or-that instead!"] Well, sorry, but none of that is gonna help you a thing, and it wouldn't get you into my country or certainly not long-term either. Whether I personally find that an agreeable state of affairs is quite another thing, and will again not help you for now & so is otherwise quite immaterial.)

Thanks, but no thanks. I do hope not to be leaving behind Sunspirt, and the story of her engagement with India, but as to this thread --- I just don't have the staying power any longer.

Sure... my status is entirely dependent on my marriage. If my entitlement to a PIO card changes, I'm supposed to give it back --- and we all know how much having one's entire savings in this country washes with the government, especially a rather modest amount. But don't worry too much: she continues to be rather fond of this old fogey, even despite my manifest imperfections!

I was speaking to an Indian guy with a British father the other day. His parents had been married for decades when his father was told to leave the country within ten days because of some visa irregularity. I do not know the details, so I don't know how technical/serious/daft/etc it was.

Not having met anyone as yet in the US who could listen and help decode her ability, she may have felt that she also wasn’t really getting any further here except exacerbation. That did prompt some backstage chat regarding this aspect of hers for coming to IM – visa, electricity and so on are essentially red herrings. She ended up meeting someone on IM with similar abilities to her own (not me of course).

As it has unfolded the young girl is i'm sure feeling more relaxed about the next few steps that she can take regarding her particular thing. That is initially to chat with someone who can probably assist in expanding her options, and guide if she so wishes, as to what next. It’s funny how these things work out, as that contact she will meet often travels to a place that is an hour’s drive from her home. I like the symmetry, a random online post open to all, the people speak and what unfolded is an opportunity right on the doorstep.

Thus far a pleasing outcome to which we all contributed. Just as all the posts represent our diversity it also illustrates how everything is always valid in the process, even if we may think others are spouting rubbish and feel the need to express it for some reason, risking hurting the less thick skinned than myself! Anyway it all helps bring us through to what works or what does not work. There is no right or wrong, correct or incorrect about it – but giving up on the process often brings us up short, what need to tattoo a conclusion upon oneself about anyone, or anything remembering that a future erasure may be painful.

Sure, speak for yourself. You may have noticed the subject has by now indicated finding your spiritualistic musings a little hard to follow?

Maybe do her and some others a favor and try to rewrite all that keeping someone who hasn't the foggiest what you're on about in mind. I know I and thinking I have some of the required backgrounds have trouble following it; although I can find it amusing at another and only at a certain level, sure. I've certainly seen it put into words more lucidly, I'm sorry to say.

Just to let you know my comment does not mean to say that the advice one receives is right or wrong, just a rhetoric - why should people believe the advice given by anonymous people completely. Why can't we leave it on their discretion whether to take the advice or not. There is no need to shove it down someone's gullet what we want them to believe.

Dzibead, since you read the post, you must have seen that I just told the guy what the reality is, he doesn't want to believe me and thinks I am lying about the rules and regulations, then it is best to leave it for him to find out what can be done and what cannot be done.
In the end he will find out what the truth is and may feel better about it as he made the effort himself.
As to when I made the comment, you can go check on the time and date stamps and find out for yourself.

India is India and China is China.

'real educational institution', she should be careful, we have so many unreal ones.

Yes, on reading Sunsprit's post, you get the thought 'if she was your daughter what would you tell her'. I (and other people) did just that. If she was my daughter, she would listen to it. I do not know about western youngsters.