Destination India!!

I love travelling! Everyone loves travelling! And these days everyone loves travelling international!!

And that is exactly my point of curiosity!

Even my 9-year-old, who can’t distinguish between bad food and salt-less food, always insists on travelling out of India. His reason – all his friends, their friends, and those friend’s friends travel, and only travel out of India. And their reason is – what do we do in India?

My mathematically challenged self mourns, every time I have to convert my humble Indian currency to those snooty Dollars, Euros and Dirhams. Even, as I constantly pull myself back from buying that precious LV bag or those tiny bits of Cartier beauties, I fail miserably and end up adding to the per capita income of that ‘foreign country’.

I wonder, what is it about travelling to international destinations, that we Indians don’t mind paying double-digit international air fares? While travelling abroad, even the most pompous-bleached-hair-west-Delhi auntyji doesn’t mind travelling in trams and trains with those extra-large size bags, whereas travelling in a metro from Delhi airport to their house, looks like a ghastly idea to most of them. During our travels to States or UK, we let our kids eat home-packed theplas for weeks, and agree to do good with ready to eat food for our own meals. On a foreign land, even a pansari from Varanasi would chew his paan with utmost dignity and the most spoilt jaat from Haryana would also agree to wear his seat belt in cab.

Our last travel was to Singapore. As much as I loved the city, I was surprised, how they have been smart in utilising their birds, animals and trees for the welfare of their economy. As per a report issued by Singapore Tourism Board (STB), in the year 2018, about 1.44 million Indians visited Singapore spending about S$1.33 billion between January and September. An island country thriving on 721.5 sq km of land parcel, manages to pull more than 1 million Indians every year to their land, to praise their nicely scrubbed lions and tigers in the Singapore Zoo. While back home, we have more than 50 Zoological parks and National Parks in India. And none of them is popular on the global travel map. I was most surprised to visit the Kankaria Lake Complex in Ahmedabad. The promenade along the lake had a Zoo, a Butterfly Park and a Nocturnal Animal Park. And I am sure that young nifty gujju boy flying to states to meet his kaka, with his khakras & theplas tucked in, wouldn’t even be aware of it. To my sheer surprise, the Zoo had the healthiest lion and cleanest bear I have seen anywhere else in India. But the Zoo premises and cleanliness made me feel as if I am literally in a jungle and that too a haunted one. Apparently, it was inaugurated by our PM Narendra Modi, who was the chief minister of Gujarat at that time. And it so seemed that the premises were cleaned and whitewashed only to welcome him at that time.

But certain wildlife friends have better fortune. The ones housed in Mysore Zoo clearly have an enviable set up. The Zoo houses some unique animals like Giraffes, White Tiger, Zebras and a huge zone for the aquatic amphibians in planned and maintained surroundings. But there’s no news or noise about the Mysore Zoo either. Because we continue to be busy selling our shoddily kept historical sites and temples to global tourists.

Singapore has managed to create a fortune from one single river front. Apparently, the Marina Bay area – the seven-star hotel and the mall, and adjoining four business districts – were planned on the mouth of Singapore River, only with the idea of developing Singapore River bay for attracting tourists. In India, our rivers are our source of national debate on the topics like division of water, maintenance – like Ganga. 

Similarly, Switzerland… I had the privilege of travelling to the swiss country for a week. This was a tour organised by the swiss tourism. I must applaud their sense of belonging. The tourism board had made sure to show us even their last cow grazing on the field. We did a trip to Mt. Pilates, and indeed it was true delight. But my heart cry, when I visit the hills in India, and have to constantly remind my son to watch his steps away from the donkey poop.  Why can’t we have a swanky centrally heated restaurant atop a mountain range. This could be a Lonavala, which is the most preferred weekend destination for 1.84 crores Mumbaikars or in Shimla, the holiday destination of all the brave north Indians.

Art and culture are other major aspect of tourism. Over the years, Broadway has become the yardstick to measure the levels of stage performances. The world knows Paris for its Louvre. Sydney is synonymous to Opera House. Prague is considered a heaven for all those artsy-bitsy travellers. I remember when I travelled to Sydney for an interaction with Hugh Jackman for the last film from Wolverine franchise, my jet-legged fellow journalists wanted to drag me to the Opera House. I couldn’t muster enough strength to pull myself out of the hotel room, and next morning at the breakfast I was pitied by them for being the looser who lost a chance of a lifetime.

Back home, in Delhi, we booked ourselves for show at Kingdom of Dreams. It is a well-spaced entertainment destination in Gurgaon, a food court based on the cultural diversity of India, a shopping zone, and 350 seat auditorium where two original shows with live music and dance, are performed every day. Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised with the grandeur of the show – Zangoora. Replete with original soundtracks and interesting story it was solid paisa-vasool entertainment package for two and half hours. But I was saddened to see the unoccupied seats. Sadly, an attraction of this magnificence doesn’t find itself a place neither on the Haryana Tourism website nor on the Delhi Tourism website.  I am sure many of you reading this right now wouldn’t have been aware of the show. I would like to call KOD as a spectacular venue which showcases India in a mythical Bollywood avatar. At KOD one has a complete package of food, films and music.

For those who travel with kids, an amusement park is a big attraction. Destinations like Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore owe a lot of footfall to hugely popular Disney Land, Lego Land and Universal Studios, singly. Back in India too, the Adlabs groups made an attempt to tap on this hugely popular business concept. India’s largest theme-based entertainment park, with highest rides, which can literally swirl your small intestines in various Greek mythological signs. Besides the adventure park, there is water park and snow park as well. Not to miss, there’s a four-star Novotel property near by too. But all this is not enough to ensure the profit in the books. The reason is most of the local visitors have visited the property in the first five years of its operation. And secondly, both Indian and international travellers are missing. As a result, the multicrore project has been surviving on the mercy of school picnics and college students. And yes, as we like to do it, there is no mention of the amusement park on the Maharashtra Tourism website. Where as in Hong Kong, there is a special pick and drop service to the Disney Land straight from the Airport.

At times I feel like thanking late emperor Shah Jahan, for giving us the Taj Mahal! Where else the international dignitaries travelling to India would have got themselves clicked…  And a special note of thanks to PM Narendra Modi, who had a tall ambition of making world’s tallest statue. For once, the autocracy and sarkari afsars didn’t plonk hindrance in the completion of a project. And the coveted Time Magazine could have something from the modern times to attribute to our country – full of diversity and natural wonders.

For years, we and our nation are synonymous to everything spiritual and historical. The current government, especially our dearest PM is doing many things to boost tourism. There’s a plan for developing the Jain, Sufi & Buddhist circuits for global travellers. The Khumb Mela this year was a stupendous success. But why can’t we become destination for hip traveller. Why can’t the temples be upgraded with recorded history and better trained guides for the tourists? Why can’t technological giants like HCL and Infosys, develop attractions which can lure the geeks from across the globe? Why can’t our coastline host water sports at par aquatic destinations like Maldives or Seychelles? Why can’t our mountain ranges have suave and sure equipment and chic facilities like the ones in Australia or New Zealand? Why can’t ISRO conduct student exchange programs like NASA does?

With these and many more questions in my mind. I am starting a five-story series in the travel section of my blog with the idea of bringing out more such hidden gems that we have in India. I will also try to get some answers from some important people from the tourism industry to get a sense as to what prevents our country from becoming that tourist magnet. Simply because, it hurts me every time my kids negate the idea of travelling to an Indian destinations because of the lack of enough exciting activities and attraction available in my country.