Peace and Prayers

India as a tourist destination

I have been born and to some extent brought up in a place called india ! i never felt very special about being in India ! i think its like einstein said ! I mean theory of relativity . Its all about comparing with someone /something else that you know your real size , in that way when i compared my country with poorer african cousins , i thought i was lucky to have been born here in india

But that is not always the way our mind works is it , i still remember the first time cable television came to my house , it was a visual and sensory assault . Till that time we had something called doordarshan ! and once in a week usually on sunday , we had a movie , the sunday movie session was a treat to the entire family ! it was like a small get together , everyone would gather around and watched it with great pride and joy ! our family was among the first in our nieghbourhood to have a colour television not because we were particularly rich ,but because my father was like a movie addict, i heard once that he used to go to several different movies on same day when he got chances !We really used to cherish those movies , sometimes they put really bad movies , but we had not choice but to curse the manager of that programe , watched it nonetheless . But cable television was totally different , we have so many different channels showing contents varying from news to sports to songs all the time. It was really nice to see songs . I think we indians are addicted to music . I really wondered why most of the song sequences were shot abroad in scenic locales . And then .it was the english movie channels which gave me the first few glimpses of life outside a country of mine

But None of these quite blown my mind away like the way i have seen the travel shows in dicovery channels . It was quite magical . the music ,the intimate way the host describes her journeys . i think the name of the show was lonely planet . The show was a very high quality production, the poeple will not feel like i am watching something cheap . I felt proud to be able to understand what was being communicated . and even prouder by what i saw as awe of the show anchors for what they saw in india . Although the foriegn locales were equally breath taking . the shows which featured India was particularly of great interest for me ! i used to miss some quarterly exams even to catch a show which was retelecasted !! and not feel guilty about it too ! what can i say . And i almost fell in love with the show anchor , i decided that when i grow old enough i will go in search of her quite the way she used to come to India .. but having already grown old enough and dawning of enlightenment about the reality of what i look like , i easily gave up that hope !

I believe that it was on a wednesday afternoon that i saw that show which featured Varkala ! WOwW .. varkala was a golden beach . I was always very nostalgic about varkala , i felt the same for Varkala as i felt for my first schoold crush ! but this was even more beautiful , it was as if i was watching something i did not see, Magic of camera made Varkala seem like something out of my dream , Lens captured the morning sun like a gentle caress from heaven . That was pure poetry on part of Discovery , what they did to that place and how it came out on show . I wanted to kiss the host !

I really believe its a lot about how you see things , when you have so many things going on in your mind , you really miss your everyday charm , you just roam like a theif being chased by police . Only when i saw my home town depicted in technicolour did i see how really and truly amazing it was . I just took for granted the beauty and elegance of my mother until i was reminded by a poet about her natural grace . I felt blessed that i graced her womb . my mother .. my india !