Friday, March 20, 2009

India - A Nightmare for Foreigners

India is a nightmare for foreigners and most of them would agree with me. I have seen many foreigners being harassed by locals. Yes, literally harassed! These fellows come to India with the thought of seeing a new India, where the ancient traditions gel perfectly with the new modern ideologies and thinking (well almost). What follows their actual visit to India is not less than a nightmare.

Local people of a certain city take advantage of these foreigners by overcharging them on almost everything. I for once saw a foreigner pay 125 Rupees for a bottle of mineral water, which cost only 12 Rupees. The extents to which Indians can actually take advantage of them Is really unimaginable.

Ok, so they have got loads of money in their pockets. I mean, come on, is it really their fault that theirs is a much better and stronger economy than ours? If the Indian economy would have been so strong then probably, we would have been in their places and they would have tried to sell the same bottle of mineral water at a much higher price than we do. But I am not writing this because I am jealous of their economy or anything else. I am writing this because it appalls me at the sight of Indian people taking advantage of these foreigners who visit India to have a good time.

One such instance that frequently pops up nowadays in my mind is of this Iranian girl who was my girl friends co passenger in a bus en route from Goa to Pune. My girlfriend told me about this Iranian girl and how she was having an awesome time in India. Now, we all know that Iran is a country which according to its customs and traditions has some restrictions and prohibitions on the way women dress, and behave in their country. So this girl came to Pune to enjoy two years of her life on the pretext of learning English language from Pune University.

She told my girlfriend that she was enjoying her time in India. She was doing everything in India that she could never do in her country. Right from smoking to drinking, multiple dates to wearing all kinds of clothes that she could never possibly wear in her country.

So that same evening I was having dinner at a restaurant called Malaka Spice with my girlfriend, when we spotted the same Iranian girl sitting in the same restaurant with an Indian guy. So my girlfriend went over and spoke to her and exchanged pleasantries (this has to be the most irritating trait among girls, where they giggle and laugh without any specific reason). She also came over to our table to greet me. Then she told us something that I can never forget.

Apparently after my girlfriend and this girl got down from the bus at their destination in Pune, this girl took a rickshaw to her place. The rickshaw driver told her that his friend was also in the same rickshaw and asked if it would be a problem to her. As she did not want to argue with these local rickshawwallas at 6:30 in the morning, she said no, it won’t be a problem. While the rick was driving her home, this alleged friend of the rick driver spoke continuously in local language i.e.in Marathi, with the rickshaw driver and she felt that something was wrong somewhere. She saw the surroundings and did not recognize them.

She spoke to the driver in Hindi with real difficulty as she only knew some words. The driver told her that he was taking a short cut so that they could go faster. After almost 25 minutes, the driver stopped the rick in a secluded place and demanded 3000 Rs from her. Now, this poor girl was in a mess. She did not have any ‘real friends’ in Pune and she did not know what to do, as they were two hefty and sturdy guys. So she got scared and took out 500 Rs from her bag and gave it them. They noticed that she had foreign currency in her handbag and asked her to hand over the “Dollars” to them (Its funny, that people deem each and every foreign currency to be a Dollar even when they don’t exactly know what the currency is). This girl could not do anything. There wasn’t single soul around to help her. She took out whatever money she had in her handbag and gave it to them (Of course, she had much more “Dollars” in her luggage bag, which obviously was not known to the rick driver and his friend).

They took the bait and took the money she gave them. Luckily for the girl, they did not leave her there. They eventually dropped her in the locality where she lived and fled from the scene. This girl was very lucky that they did not rape or kill her after taking the money. The rick driver and his friend seemed to have got scared at that very thought. Whatever the reason, this incident had really shaken up the girl.
After listening to the story, we felt very sad for her and also for all the other foreigners who visit India. Each and every foreigner goes through such a phase in India where they are literally looted in daylight by Immoral Indians. I am an Indian and believe me; I don’t feel proud about being an Indian after all this. The fact that we can be as downtrodden as this causes immense sorrow to me.

I personally, did not want this to happen to the girl again, and I told my girlfriend to exchange phone numbers with her, in case she got into any trouble in the city. She also did not know how to contact the police. We told her that in any emergency, if she needed help from the local police, all she needed to do was to dial 100 from her cell phone or from the nearest public phone. She was very happy when we gave her this information and I think she must have felt a bit safe as well.

I don’t say that all Indians cheat foreigners. People like hawkers, shopkeepers, antique sellers, tour operators and even bus drivers take these foreigners for a ride. Indians have this fascination for white-skinned people and think that all foreigners have lots of money. Sometimes I feel pity on these foreigners and sometimes I feel pity on myself on being an “Indian”, where according to traditions, a guest should be treated as god!

3 comments:

Kushal said...

"where according to traditions, a guest should be treated as god!" LOL.

Indians have always been suckers for unrealistic traditions and pretending to the world how great our culture is. Because it's hailed as a virtue to sacrifice for your fellowmen, people have forgotten the value of an individual.

What else can we expect from the people in a country where the people who attack a woman writer are hailed as the "injured party" and the woman is arrested for "writing objectionable content that upsets certain religious authorities"?

Kushal said...

BTW, that case happened with a Bangladeshi woman writer in Hyderabad some time ago.

People have forgotten about the sanctity of a person's private space and the importance of treating everyone with courtesy.

Somehow, somewhere, it always rears it ugly head -- in the form of abuse on foreigners, or an attack on women in pubs.

btw, it's good to see you resume blogging :-)

Shriharsha Bhat said...

I really feel sad for these hapless foreigners who come to see the "real India". I wanted to resume blogging earlier, however, doing a Masters degree spoiled my plans!!