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| Bad Indian holiday |
By:
Published in TOI |
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Shobhan Saxena sympathises with foreigners who have to deal with rats, roaches and ruffians in India.
Good travelers have no fixed plans and no intention of arriving. They never feel like a foreigner in an alien nation. For such people, India is the perfect place. It’s the land where time stops. It’s only here that they can roll Malana Cream into a soft paper under a blue sky in the frozen heights of the Himalayas. It’s here where they gulp down glasses of bhang-laced lassi in the funky gullies of Varanasi and stagger to the Ganga for a holy dip in its toxic water. And, it’s here they can walk through the riot of colours, smells and noises through the horrors of squalor, soaking in the virtual decay of reality through the clogged pores of their skin. It’s an unforgettable experience of a functioning anarchy whose chaos refuses to subside even at night. It’s incredible!
It’s strange how a spirit arising out of this squalor touches the chords of the heartstrings. But it soon turns into heartache when a traveler decides to drop anchor. A new international survey says that India along with China and Russia, was the “primary emerging destination” for expatriates. That’s the good news. The bad news, according to the survey is that the expatriates find it “very tough” to live here due to issues like “housing and living costs, immigration troubles, bribery and employment related concerns”. In short, life here is a daily struggle.
The trouble begins at the Foreign Regional Registration Office. After walking through a maze of chawls and washing lines and climbing up the stinking stairs, when a person finally manages to reach the office filled with dust-laden files amid sea of sad faces, a foreigner invariably gets lost in a jumble of forms, paper clips and money. For many people, the experience is so bizarre that they prefer to leave the country than try to extend their visa or change its status.
For those who are lucky to get the visa, it’s the beginning of a roller-coaster ride in urban India. First came the property brokers who are very high on promise and pretty low on delivery. They drag the people through dirty lanes, show them bad houses, take money and just vanish. And living in the match box sized apartments in itself is a challenge. There are lizards on the walls, rats in the kitchen, cockroaches in the bathroom, cats in the balcony and street dogs at the door leaking taps and creaking doors only add to their woes. And nosy neighbours make it impossible for them to have a quiet private life.
Even if they learn to life with rats and cats, there are more challenges in store for them; getting a phone, hiring a cab, traveling by trains, driving through traffic jams and eating in a place which doesn’t give you “Delhi belly”. And for the women, just walking through the army of thousands of men ever present on the streets and roads and survive their stares, comments and groping hands in a nightmare.
This makes even the adventurous souls homesick. They lose faith in the land with infinite layers of time. The harsh reality of daily life here defies belief. It forces them to feel like a foreigner. |
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