This incredible India...

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THE INCREDIBLE India www.viaggiinasia.com Arriving at New Delhi publicity warns us that we are entering in the 'Incredible' India. "Incredible India" is the slogan shown on the jackets of local guides and tourist centers in the sub-continent. In fact, India is incredible, for the enormous ethnic and cultural diversity of the people who live there, for its breathtaking scenery at the foot dell'Himalaya for its white sand beaches in the south, to the monuments of dreams that make us imagine a luxurious life at the time of the Maharajas, the kindness of its people, is incredible for the contrasts very pronounced for the shrillness of amplified music from the speakers, to the scents of flowers and incense and the smell of organic material a bit scattered everywhere . It is simply incredible. But it is also inguaribilmente "incredible" for its all'imbroglio recidivism, for the wealth of imagination in the rub groped tourists. The cases are many, sometimes coarse bambineschi, at times more sophisticated. As travel organizers consider it our responsibility to accompany the client, if not personally, at least by telephone, to determine if all goes well. In this way we are being reported all over the repertoire of the attempts of the "see if I can earn something more." The list is long, here only to illustrate some of the examples that have impressed us most. A few years ago a customer returns to hotel in Delhi and when he had asked how she spent the day I answered: "Well, but in the underpass of Paliki Bazar, I was a young man approached me and asked me if I want to clean the shoes. Surprised the shoes look and see who actually are soiled with a indefinable. Agree! By the end asks me 700 rupees, and I pay. " I say SETTECENTO Rupees !!!!!!!!!!! Nearly half of India salary. The trick is this: a friend of the young crook very discreetly and quickly dirty shoes of the "customer", after the boy kindly asks if you need the service. Leaving from the hotel, we look around a bit in the great disorientation Delhi. We are not sure whether to take a taxi or an auto-rickshaw. Rapidly approaching a self-rickshaw driver that we proposed to take us where we want for 5 rupees. The temptation is great to accept, because in Delhi for 5 rupees a tourist does not even drink tea. If we accept we are diverted into a shop for tourists, only for one minute, then where we feel compelled to buy something and he pockets the commission. Or, even without buying anything, just bring him inside the shop, just to get this with the 'points' and when it comes to 10 the committee is guaranteed ... A few days ago a customer arrives at night in Delhi. Just outside the airport there is a box where a book a "pre-paid taxi" just give the data and the name and you receive a receipt with the taxi number and the exact amount to be paid. Arrived at its destination is given a receipt and the driver goes into the room. So did our customer. But receiving a call from a mysterious man who says: "I 've waited at the airport with a red car but she did not come, and now as we do?" Sub-to "Who pays?". Fortunately did not give correct and everything is over there. The trick works like this: come to 'the hotel taxi driver passes the data to compare who calls in and we try. Incredible ... In a first-class car air conditioning, the best available on the local railways, tea costs 5 rupees and a dinner on 25-30 rupees. Our customers pay the same service for 300 rupees, the cost of a meal in a restaurant in Delhi discreet ... Myself, a few years ago, he decided to eat dinner in the train. I pay with a note of 500 rupees. Waiting and waiting for the rest, but the train, I saw why the rest. I always: want to buy a bottle of mineral water in the station. Box is a sign that warns "Mineral water 10 Rs. The bottle is given to me and ask how much it costs. The face of those who are innocent on the other side of the counter tells me: "20 rupees." Context, indicating the sign and he told me smiling "Well, then ten rupees." Pathankot station: Punjab. More elaborate systems that touch the cord of compassion occurring in luxury hotels. A few days ago a gentleman goes to the reception of a 5 * hotel to change 50 euros. Take its rupees, about 2500, and returned to the room. After several minutes the service is reached, in tears, who said that perhaps you have forgotten to give her 50 euros, or were lost. The tragedy of India, thousands of years, is repeated in the chamber. The Lord will watch in your pocket and is confident that the euro does not exist, in her cries and says that it will be dismissed if not repay lost astronomical figure, the wife of Lord recoils and insists that the data are another 50 Euros. The Lord gave and in the end everyone is happy and contented. You say: "But that's strange, it could be a normal loss of money and the request for an audit?". Strange that there is not the first time this has happened and strangely in hotels 5 stars, the ones where you think: "If you are here are safe from everything." Strange is that either someone has stolen the money to the poor cashier or she is pretending, that's strange is strange. The beggars ... another scam for the tourist good, touching on feelings of guilt. Behind the beggars there is a huge racket and often cruel. I cannot move easily and quickly from one city to the second of a festival or other cultural or religious demonstration that attracts tourists in a given place. Dharamsala is one of them. In some periods of the masses of beggars moving to the village of McLeod Ganj. A western friend who lives here, curious to see the same beggar for years, always with a child of the same measure that does not grow ever investigated. The discovery is "incredible." The beggar, in this case, Rajasthan, "rents" the child from a mother, for 50 rupees a day. The impersonating her and asks alms for the little hungry. The hygienic conditions in which the child must be compassionate. Not a bad idea: the mother who lets you earn a bit of calm is absence of the child and 50 rupees for the rent, the beggar his daily salary. The game offers the beggar a job at home as his cleaning lady. She looks at him like saying "Are you stupid?" And leaves. Another way to soften the west is this: the child badly dressed and dirty is close to the tourist and says "no money, only food." How can you deny food to the poor? It is received by the hand, you feel good, and it brings to the shop where he [the child] buy all that want, and the father pays west. Greeting the child and brings the cost to the mother. Everyone happy, especially my mother who sells shopping ... The above will not be a reason that prevents a country to visit "incredible" as India. But a Filini not care fails to avoid being in trouble and then, upon return, to criticize an entire people because of some furbacchioni! Franco Pizzi Dharamshala, 3 February 2006