Before travelling to India...
Good to know some bits and pieces about India before going there. Some of the following suggestions might be of help, further information can be found on the internet, too.
- Travel / tourist literature, e.g., "Lonely Planet" or for
German speaking people "Reise KnowHow" (Martin und Thomas
Barkemeier, "Indien - der Süden")
- Internet addresses:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India
http://wikitravel.org/en/India
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/india
http://india.gov.in/maps/indiaindex.php
- Indian Embassy (Visa, 6 months duration, is a MUST)
http://www.indembassybern.ch/
- Birds of India
A photographic Guide to the "Birds of India", B. Grewal, B. Harvey, Otto Pfister
- Hindu Religion and Life
for German speaking tourists: "Stichwort Hinduismus", Thomas Schweer, Heyne, München)
- Indian authors and literature (contemporary)
Aravind Adiga "The White Tiger", the winner of the Man Booker Prize 2008 - this book gives a deep and critical insight to the Indian society, a blazingly savage and brilliant novel, easy to read (Atlantic Books, London)
Kiran Nagarkar "Ravan and Eddie", a great novel playing in Mumbay (Penguin Books, India)
- ...and hereby a list what you should think of before leaving to India:
Vaccination for Hepatitis (A), Malaria prevention or anti-mosquito products
Sun protection measures
Copies of passport (and scanned documents sent by e-mail to your own address -> so you can download them any time and print them, if needed)
Picture below: the "ironing man" - this man is ironing a shirt with a flat iron filled of hot coal. He does not earn much for this, he is proud of his job and somehow gave a happy impression. He will say "Thank you, Sir!" and is proud to have been the subject of a photograph.
You may think that this is nice that India still preserves the old traditions or you might go beyond this idea and assume that this "Indian way" is probably a piece of the problems in this country, the problems for the social tensions, the pollution all over the country (e.g., plastic everywhere, in all rivers and villages, huge health problems in cities like Chennai due to the traffic and old fashionend "2 strokes motorikshas" or incredibly stinking trucks and buses) and the abuse of people for work that could be done in a more easy way (e.g., women sweeping the floors or men lifting cement and sand to the 4th floor of a building and not using any basic equipment like a pulley block).
Indian people are proud of their country and its traditions. It is evident that comments like the one above are disliked by Indians. Much comes from the religion that still influences a lot the daily life. This somehow "fatal attitude" is difficult to understand. Indian politicians might say that it is difficult to change something as nobody wants the change and everything restarts permanently as the "Indian wheel", nothing changes, everything is reborn and comes back, nobody can do anything about it...
One might suspect that this is just a cheap excuse for the inefficiency of the Indian administration and politic. If you read headlines like "keep our city clean and green, zero CO2 emission in 2008..." and you see the waste and dirt around this same building, the street in front of it, then you start to believe that this must be a bad joke rather than the start to an ambitious environmental care program.
And if you ask people that are well educated then you get their disagreement with the local and national politicians that tell you a lot of nice things and that do nothing about it or then the opposite of what they promise. Great Mahatma Gandhi is seen on all bank notes and his name written in probably all towns somewhere, however, his spirit is either no longer known or no longer cultivated.
And should you still have doubts, then read "The White Tiger", and you will understand why the "Official India" does not like this book nor its author.
Please, understand my intention: I am not pointing with the finger into open wounds and think that on our side everything is fine. My comments derive from "...appreciation for this great country and the people there and the wish to prevent it from big problems in the future..."
Hence, it is our hope that the young Indian people of today will bring the change to India, a change for a hopefully good future.
P.S.: Indian museums are disappointing as the exhibits are most often in bad
shape and light, good explanations missing and the general impression given is
"lack of motivation to create and maintain a good show".
Again, the argument "we are a poor country and that is the maximum we can
do about it" is not very valid. Mexico, as example, is not a rich country,
however, its museums generally are in good to excellent shape, well made
explanations in Spanish and English, and the exhibits free of dust, in both
senses. India could learn a lot from Mexico...