India is great- yes it is great. Whenever I visit India once every 3-4 years I post articles on various social media sites. There are some reasons behind these articles:
1. To educate the people about what they think about India,after all this is an EDUCATIONAL SITE.
2. To make a comparison about different worlds- Canada and India. I know it is stupid to compare apples and oranges but still the patriotism and love for India forces me to write such articles.
3. To pray and DO SOMETHING for my motherland if I can. And this is how I am trying to bring awareness among the masses.
Just grumbling about the bad points about India and not doing anything is like looking as a silent spectator. Most of the articles on this blog and other social media sites are an attempt in this direction to provide awareness. I am not a whistle-blower but I am not at all a silent spectator.
Yes India has grown to great heights since the last time when I visited in 2012. New Delhi airport http://www.newdelhiairport.in which is one of the most modern airports is treated as COSMETICS AIRPORT. This was the adjective which was used by an Immigration Officer when I was standing on his desk for security clearance. Yes you should visit this airport to see it for yourself. Most of the internationally-branded stores are visible and the prices are competing. Food is quite cheap and clean with Indian recipes. Sleeping pods at Terminal 3 are an excellent additions for the comfort of transit passengers. Even the lounges are quite affordable. We stayed at Eaton Smart New Delhi Airport Transit Hotel which is situated at Terminal 3, fifth floor.One can book http://newdelhiairport.eatonhotels.com online and is an excellent place for transit passengers. No need to get an Indian visa, just a boarding pass or proof of onward travel ( which you definitely have) is enough. It is comparable to Bawa International in Mumbai http://www.bawahotels.com/accommodation/ . This hotel was adjacent to Mumbai airport and we paid $100 for one night. We stayed for one night in this hotel while going to Kanyakumari. Trivandrum is the nearest airport for Kanyakumari and we flew by Indigo. Oh yes before I go further let me compare Spicejet with Indigo. Indigo is the best and Spicejet is the worst. In 2 weeks in that part of India we flew about 6-times by Indigo but it was not late even once. I have posted my review about Spicejet in this link http://www.mouthshut.com/review/SpiceJet-review-ttpprurops . In Trivandrum we visited Vikram Sarabhai Space center http://www.vssc.gov.in which is a place worth-seeing. The museum gives you a feel of India’s pride in space exploration. The golden beach in Trivandrum which is popularly known as Poovar Beach is an excellent beach to visit.http://www.kerelatourism.com/poovar.html. While going from Trivandrum to Kanyakumari we experienced the feel of under-development. We travelled by private chauffeur-driven air-conditioned car. The 90 km distance took more than 3 hrs in dusty and bumpy roads through bazaars and villages. The driver told us that this is the only way to go to Kanyakumari. But not a big deal because Vivekananda Rock memorial, Kanyakumari Temple gave us great relief http://www. vivekanandakendra. org . There are many things to see in Kanyakumari but I am not much impressed because of the lack of development and dress-code in every religious place. This is the only place in India where you pay for public urinals(even for men) and parks. I had an impression that temples in south India are better managed than those in North India but it proved wrong (my personal view) when I compared Kanyakumari with Vaishno Devi in Katra https://www. maavaishnodevi. org. I was raised in Jammu (now in Canada) am able to see the development after the birth of Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board. The huge amount of money collected through offerings is duly spent on developments of this religious monument. We stayed at Gauri Bhavan huts http://address007.com/Address-of-Gauri-Bhawan-Vaishno-Devi-04987 . What a marvellous accommodation ! Double bed room for just $15 with a room heater,hot water,room service and extra blankets and on top of that- excellent view of the nature on a mountain. Excellent, my goodness. Apart from good accomodation there is excellent food,toilets,helicopter service,battery-operated autos,ponies,elevators at the Bhavan etc etc. Cleanliness is totally top-notch. Shrine board needs my pat and kudos for this great job they have done in recent years. We flew from Chandigarh airport http://airportchandigarh.com/ to Mumbai. In Mumbai we had a great time visiting Film City http://www.filmcitymumbai.org named after Dadasaheb Phalke who is the father of Indian Film Industry. Though anyone can visit film city paying $8 for a 2-hour trip we were lucky to have Ashuu Trikha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashu_Trikha with us who is a seasoned Bollywood Director and my cousin. We were able to see the finer details of this city which we may have missed otherwise. After visiting Film City in Goregaon Ashuu took us to Madh island where we enjoyed chat with Sunny Deol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_Deol on the sets of Ghayal Returns. There are a few things that disturbed us while in Mumbai. The traffic bottlenecks were a great problem except during off-peak hours. The travel agency at Bawa International
duped us by charging almost $20 for a distance of 7.57 kms from hotel to Siddhivinayak and back. We paid $5 for the 9 kms to OLA cabs http://www.olacabs.com So it is my personal suggestion that whenever you need a cab in India just go online and book OLA cabs. They are reliable and tariff is reasonable. Another thing that goes against Bawa international is the wi-fi. It was not at all working. They asked us to use their cyber room but there was no signal at all too. I was totally cut off. From Mumbai we went to Pune by Shivneri air-conditioned bus http://www.msrtc.org.in/shivneri-booking.php . It departs from Dadar every 15 minutes and terminates at Pune railway station. On the way it stops at Lonavala for a snacks break. It is an excellent service and quite cheap- $7 one way. About 66 km from Pune one should definitely visit Celebrity Wax Museum in Lonavala http://www. celebritwaxmuseum.com/ . Entry fee is only $2. Though most of the time the driving is on highway but going in and out of Pune is a big hassle and stress.
There are many things that bother us too much whenever we visit India. Main ones are the pollution,corruption,bargaining for the prices, lack of committment for almost everything and too much of rush every here and there. Overcrowded markets, bazars, roads full of traffic with no traffic sense and no respect for traffic lights and signals are definitely an invitation for crimes and lawlessness. Another thing that is quite visible in India is security check everywhere even in malls and stores. Why would you go to a Mall if you have to undergo a security check just like the one at the airport. In fact in some of the towns there were no STOP SIGNS or traffic lights. Free-for-all situation is quite prevalent there. Such things are unacceptable in a civilized society. If India is showing to the whole world that we are NOT A NATION OF 50s a lot more needs to be done for the safety of common man.
Healthy living through spirituality 