Mysterious India

States of India 1. Andhra Pradesh | 2. Arunachal Pradesh | 3. Assam | 4. Bihar | 5. Chhattisgarh | 6. Goa | 7. Gujarat | 8. Haryana | 9. Himachal Pradesh | 10. Jammu and Kashmir | 11. Jharkhand | 12. Karnataka | 13. Kerala | 14. Madhya Pradesh | 15. Maharastra | 16. Manipur | 17. Meghalaya | 18. Mizoram | 19. Nagaland | 20. Orissa | 21. Punjab | 22. Rajasthan | 23. Sikkim | 24. Tamilnadu | 25. Tripura | 26. Uttar Pradesh | 27. Uttarakhand | 28. West Bengal | Union Territories A. Andaman and Nicobar Islands | B. Chandigarh | C. Dadra and Nagar Haveli | D. Daman and Diu | E. Lakshadweep | F. National Capital Territory of Delhi | G. Puducherry | See Also India Photos | Distance to ... | South India map | National Parks in India | Indian Trains Where is India ? | Only in India! | Time in India | India | South India | North India | West India | East India | North East India | Andaman & Nicobar Islands | Lakshadweep Islands

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< earlier part of the 'Mysterious India' :The rude welcome

There is no India culture.

As a nation India is a conglomeration of many identities.

This is a fact about India. The word India makes you believe that this is a single entity. Not true. You would fail miserably if you are all out to find out the Indian culture. India is not a single cultural block. Rather it’s an anthology of a thousand countries within a large nation. Each tiny country had their own customs, their own dialects, and their own legends. And they all mixed perfectly well to form a cultural salad, still retaining the individual identity. And why didn’t it all melt into one? The simple answer is selfishness. Every one thinks theirs is a superior culture than the neighbors.

More than a dozen languages are spoken widely at various geographical locations. The diversity is visible in cuisine, costume and culture. The way people look and think are different. The way people cook and eat are different. All has different festivals and even different holidays.

For an Indian living in a south Indian town, Varanasi in the northern plane is a mysterious place far away from the visual perceptions and comprehensions. If you travel the length and breadth of this country, every morning you arrive at a new India than the one you’ve seen yesterday.

The north, the south, the east, the west …all are distinctively different. No cities or towns represent the stereotype of India. All are unique in its own right.

Everything is possible in India. She continues her drama with all the twists and turns. Bizarre or otherwise things happen as a matter of fact. Life goes on next to it as if nothing special is happening. The audiences are made to act and she watches the fun.

India is on a move. No, that is not an oxymoron!

Culturally this country falls somewhere in between the orthodox and the modern. You’ll find a lot of sex symbols and signals of modernism almost everywhere in India. Like women in the cities walking around in tight T-shirts and jeans; those huge billboards profiling modern attire. Make no mistakes about it. Deep in their mind it is a conservative culture that respects tradition.

The difference between a sleeveless blouse and the one with elbow long sleeves is HUGE in terms of modernism. It’s technically possible to prove that a traditional Sari is (can be made!) more ‘sexy’ than a T-shirt and jeans. But still the later is accepted with skepticism.

The younger generation is a century away from that of their parent's. The cultural clash truly happens more at the middleclass Indian living rooms than the one with a western visitor at a social place.

They are notorious in “Indianizing” everything they like. The numerous “Chinese fast food” joints doted all around the country serves food neither Chinese nor Indian. The vegetarian McDonald and the Indian version of MTV (empty-V, as it is locally pronounced!) are other examples.

But the peculiar thing about this diversity is that you can feel the presence of a strong and widely spaced common cultural net encompassing all the individual Indian cultures. From a mile you can spot it. The blood circulating is common. Indians feel proud in telling this phenomenon as ‘Unity in Diversity’. What does it mean? . Well, there are as many versions as there are Indians.

India presents one of the exciting statistics when it comes to its people. First of all its population. It is the second most populous country in the world. With 17% of world’s humanity lives within its borders, India is all set to beat China to become the largest populated nation on earth. To give a figurative idea, India adds an Australia to its population year on year.

No stats on India is complete with the mention of its poor. Though graph is improving for good, close to 20% of India’s population is deprived. Contrast that against the ‘Happiness’ surveys conducted across the world recently. Indian youths topped the survey in being the happiest lot. Close to70% of its population aged less than 35 years, India is a lot younger in its demographics. Just recently the number of millionaires in India have crossed the millionth mark. And contrary to the expectation, India’s millionaires are concentrated more in the rural areas rather than in urban centers.

There is nothing like the poor lives in villages and the rich in the cities. The extreme riches and the unimaginably poor live almost side-by-side. Well, the burgeoning population of middleclass lives somewhere in-between.

All share more or less the same public landscape. The cultural co existence of these classes for the lifetime is a miracle unexplainable. Accommodating an alien foreign tourist in this society is not a surprise as compared to her own social contradictions.

The shear sizes of all these classes created a unique economic system to accommodate and cater all of them. As a tourist this plays to your advantage. You can fit into anywhere in the economic spectrum. This is one reason why it is possible for you do an India tour with a lavish or a tight budget.

You'll not miss anything expect the luxury and comfort as the hotel accommodations are available from $3 to $300.Three thousand kilometers you can travel for a cost from $10 to $150 by the same train at different classes. You can have a decent meal from less than $½ to a king like supper for $50.

There is something like the "poor man's Mercedes" available for anything and everything in India. Like anyone in India you need to find out your financial class and just fit into that! ‘When in Rome, do as Romans do’ is a practical piece of advice in this context.

A foreign tourist definitely stick out in a social setup. The difference can be made as an advantage. People taken it for granted that a foreign tourist is well traveled and courageous. It’s up to you to make it to your advantage. Probably this is evolved from the fact that they see countless number of lone foreign travelers roam the nook and corner of the country. An average Indian thinks as if the whole of the western population is of the same monolithic culture. For him the US culture and the UK are the same, leave alone the difference between Scotland and Wales! This has nothing to do with the geography understanding or the lack of it. The reason assigned for this could be simple. Both the learner guest and the host are unaware of each other's culture.

Next parts on 'Mysterious India' Family Factor >

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