Sunil Sethi: The pleasure and pain of India

AL FRESCO

It's that time of year when most Indians, whatever their capacity of playing host, gird their loins to welcome foreign arrivals. There isn't a hotel room to spare in any city, so bookings were taken care of months in advance. Car rental companies have run out of vehicles. Popular restaurants are packed tight like sardine cans. There are serpentine queues outside the Taj and the shops are overflowing.

Not surprisingly, the World Travel and Tourism Council has ranked India fifth among the world's tourists' hot spots with the fastest-growing tourism""8.8 per cent annually. The tourism ministry reports a 13.5 increase in arrivals over last year.

As a matter of fact, Sethi Travels & Tours, an informal agency I seasonally run for overseas friends, has never been more pushed. In recent weeks I have been taking around visitors from Europe, America, Japan and East Africa""a pretty mixed crowd of first-timers, family members, complete outsiders and People of Indian Origin. In the process, I have been conducting my own straw poll on what appeals or appalls foreign visitors the most. For all its pleasures, you'd be surprised at some of the things about India that continue to puzzle or pain outsiders.

Their biggest fear is of falling ill. It is useless to dispel visitors' anxieties with talk of the excellence of Indian hospitals, doctors and range of international drugs available at the chemist on the street corner. Almost every visitor had seen their doctor before leaving and arrived with an outsize kit of personal medical supplies""from malaria tablets and mosquito repellents to several types of antidotes for stomach ailments. Health-wise, India is unable to shed its reputation as a dark and dangerous place.

They didn't seem to mind the chaos much, somehow it was part of the local colour. In fact the East African family ran a contest for their children""one laddoo each for every cow spotted""and the poverty could sometimes be picturesque. The biggest shocker after fear of being sick remains public squalor and lack of civic hygiene""people urinating on streets, beggars poking their stumps in car windows and no decent public toilet in sight. As for the sights, the commonest complaint was: Why is the Taj situated in a hell-hole called Agra? Can't it be relocated ?

There is another thing that puzzles outsiders about India and it is a fear of being rooked, harassed or lied to. Ripped off by taxi drivers in Delhi, nagged by touts at Fatehpur Sikri or overcharged by deluxe hotels""across the board India is the land of the under-hand or the under-delivered. Luxury hotels are part of the rip-off. One guest found his room facing the parking lot when he was paying for a poolside view. Others were made to pay London prices at a top Italian restaurant for food that was not quite premium Italian.

Some of the old prohibitions and hassles have mercifully disappeared. Visitors are delighted to be able to pop into the local liquor store and pick up what they want, including reasonably priced Indian wines. Flights are comfortable and fares competitive. Municipalities have woken up to streamline shopping. In Delhi, one of the biggest hits is Dilli Haat, a crafts bazaar that now attracts as many foreign visitors as Indian. The range of quality food in new restaurants is a huge attraction.

But what is the best thing about India, the one thing for which my friends will return?

Almost unanimously the answer was the same. India is superbly priced. Despite the occasional over-charging it is excellent value for money of many Asian destinations. It's the one place, they said, where if you know what you want and how to look for it, you will find it. Many used the word quality, not an easy thing to quantify. At some level or the other they related to the quality of Indian life. It was distinctive and in complete contrast to where they came from. They'll be coming back for more.