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The knotty traveller

The Indian tourist has been voted the second worst in the world. What have we done to earn this dubious distinction?

Mind your behaviour When you travel abroad

Tonnes of baggage stuffed into a trolley, a soiled handkerchief in hand, the Indian traveller steps down at London’s Heathrow Airport. Squealing children and chiffon-sari clad wife stand out like the veritable sore thumb in the ‘propah 217; British surroundings. To the accompaniment of a cacophony of sounds – from jingling bangles to squeaking shoes, they wade past fellow passengers with cheerful disregard for queues.

The lady insists on carrying her box of papad, pickles and thepla. On the streets, they hail London’s famous black cabbie, and head for one of the most prestigious hotels in the city. The bell boy is left squished under the tonnes of baggage. When they reach the room, they are too busy throwing open the curtains to get a glimpse of the London “landscape,” not bothering to pay the deflated bell boy a tip. The lady heads for a bath and in the process, floods the bathroom and half the corridor, leaving the maid a nightmare to clean. The family arrive for lunch, complete with children scuffing their shoes on the parquet floor and papa chatting knowledgeably with the waiter holding back some ten other fellow diners.

Could the great Indian traveller be more obnoxious? Loud, ill-mannered, misbehaved… are these sobriquets we attract? A recent survey has branded Indians the second worst tourists in the world.

Indian tourists are disliked because they are loud, untidy, and badly behaved. Are we this loud and noisy because at home? Maybe, as a normal conversation has to be carried out at higher decibels simply to compete over the sound of loud campaigning, wedding processions, traffic and, mooing of the cows.

And about untidiness, we are spiritually driven to be clean and to keep ourselves clean, but we litter the surroundings! “Indian tourists do not deliberately conduct themselves in such a fashion,” says T. Radhakrishna of Routes Travel Ltd. He says the situation was worse a decade ago when Indians were considered miserly and known to spread to confusion. “With globalisation and exposure to other cultures, the scene is getting better.”

“We have pre-departure meetings, to educate travellers about the country they are visiting and its customs,” says Supriya Kandhari of Raj Tours and Travels. Ravi Kumar, a regular traveller, lists the lack of table manners and inappropriate dress sense as some of the blunders Indian tourists commit often. Of course, apart from being curious about everything and everybody.

One thing to be thankful for is that we have not been dubbed the rudest tourists. That dubious distinction goes to the British.

Blessed with an adventurous mind and now enough money to travel, it’s time Indian tourists learnt to respect the cultural ethos of the country they visit.

DHARTI MOMAY0A
APARNA ASHOK

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