Welcome to my home, Mom and Dad! Now, watch out for the bombs.
Hi, this is Melissa Bell. I'm an American working at Mint and I had the pleasure of pestering LiveJournal during the American election, so I'm back to annoy you all in the global forum.
After two years of living in India, my parents (Californians by birth who have gotten frighteningly comfortable in their home state) are finally making the long trek to visit me in my new home. It hasn’t been without some cajoling on my part. And just when they announced their plans, a week later, Mumbai fell victim to a heinous terrorist attack. My parents then read weeks of front-page US coverage and watched images of the burning Taj hotel and seriously worried about their trip out here.
When I started planning their trip, I thought it would be great to go skiing in Kashmir. The resort has perfect snowfall, few fellow skiers and the Himalayas as the backdrop. It sounds pretty perfect. I also thought we should stop in Mumbai. I love the old decrepit charm of the Portuguese buildings falling down in Colaba, the masses of blue and white homes in the fishing village on the tip of the city, the majesty of the great mass of colonial charm in Victoria’s Terminus.
The parents were not so keen on the plan: “We’d like to go somewhere that hasn’t seen violence recently.”
Sadly, in India, those places are few and far between. Bombs exploded in the park I eat my lunch in last September. The insanely overly-saturated tourist trap of Jaipur had its own bomb blasts in May. My friend’s ancestrol home state of Assam just was hit last week.
We seem to move on from the attacks pretty quickly in India. The Mumbai blasts saw an eruption of anger for the first month, but the hotels are back open and people are moving on. But for foreigners, has the sheen of New India been permanently darkened? The New York Times recommends India as one of the top 43 places to visit in 2009. But how many people will come? Would you come?
After two years of living in India, my parents (Californians by birth who have gotten frighteningly comfortable in their home state) are finally making the long trek to visit me in my new home. It hasn’t been without some cajoling on my part. And just when they announced their plans, a week later, Mumbai fell victim to a heinous terrorist attack. My parents then read weeks of front-page US coverage and watched images of the burning Taj hotel and seriously worried about their trip out here.
When I started planning their trip, I thought it would be great to go skiing in Kashmir. The resort has perfect snowfall, few fellow skiers and the Himalayas as the backdrop. It sounds pretty perfect. I also thought we should stop in Mumbai. I love the old decrepit charm of the Portuguese buildings falling down in Colaba, the masses of blue and white homes in the fishing village on the tip of the city, the majesty of the great mass of colonial charm in Victoria’s Terminus.
The parents were not so keen on the plan: “We’d like to go somewhere that hasn’t seen violence recently.”
Sadly, in India, those places are few and far between. Bombs exploded in the park I eat my lunch in last September. The insanely overly-saturated tourist trap of Jaipur had its own bomb blasts in May. My friend’s ancestrol home state of Assam just was hit last week.
We seem to move on from the attacks pretty quickly in India. The Mumbai blasts saw an eruption of anger for the first month, but the hotels are back open and people are moving on. But for foreigners, has the sheen of New India been permanently darkened? The New York Times recommends India as one of the top 43 places to visit in 2009. But how many people will come? Would you come?