Comments on: Incredible India

By: Louise Page

Louise Page — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:21:57 +0000

this piece has left me totally speechless…….

and that’s because you have totally and utterly summed everything I saw, smelt, heard and felt during the trip to India, perfectly!

I fail to see how anyone could possibly have attained ‘enlightenment’ in such a crud infested place, where life is cheap, and the ‘have nots’ are constantly reminded that they neither deserve nor desire better due to this being their ‘destiny’!!!!

The only good/enlightening experience I had, was discovering I wasn’t alone in my cynicism and finding friends/allies in unexpected quarters!!! (oh, but I am disappointed that you don’t have a sister called Violetta….)

By: Carmel

Carmel — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:26:36 +0000

Well Violetta you’ve said it all. Hope Nick hasn’t read this - poor chap would be devastated. It helps to know I’m not alone in feeling spiritually unenlightened. Catholism is looking better all the time! Thanks for putting it into words for us.

lol

By: Jaypeg

Jaypeg — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:09:55 +0000

Jeeez man, you just don’t get it. Maybe you need to meditate or something you old crab apple.

Shall I say that again?

You just don’t get it
You just don’t get it
You just don’t get it
You just don’t get it

Do you hate me yet?

You just don’t get it

By: rejash

rejash — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:57:14 +0000

mmm… interesting piece. I like the comment about the temples being ’stripped of their original grandeur and opulence many decades before.’ Think that goes for the whole country being shagged senseless for all it’s worth by the British. Something that’s held back it’s advance for a couple of centuries and it’s only just starting to recover from. Go back to blighty a few hundred years ago and I’m sure it wasn’t such a fun place to be…

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:06:42 +0000

I completely agree with you (although a lot of the opulence was stripped before the British arrived thanks to 150 years of a weakened Mughal empire), in fact I do say ‘it has been exposed to abuse by more advanced civilisations repeatedly over the centuries’ a bit further down. I even said whilst we were there that it must be close to what 17th and 18th century Britain was like.

Obviously I do list a few things that I didn’t like about the small area of India that I visited, but rather than having a dig at the Indian people my rant was targeted at the British people that had sold me a vision of India as a utopia, which it clearly isn’t. These same people have now declared my opinion as worthless just because I choose to disagree with them. A lot of these western visitors like to think they are at one with the people of India, embracing Hinduism and handing out rupees to the people on the streets; but as I quickly realised, the presence of rich, white westerners does nothing to help the plight of 99% of the nation.

By: Tim Allan

Tim Allan — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:08:02 +0000

You were away?

By: Her Imperial Majesty

Her Imperial Majesty — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:34:32 +0000

can you come and write that up as my essay about new tourism, or rather ‘new tourists’ who have been lead to believe they’re on a quest and then are let down when they come back without the golden fleece….

i’m off to peru in October. I’m not coming back with a gilded llama. I’m not going to find myself. I’m hoping to take some rocking bird pictures in my happy snappy way and see something i’ve always wanted to see, before the inca trail turns into another global high street. (ooo you made me rant!)