Indians and International Travel



Indians are becoming adept at international travel and they are travelling with gusto .Today’s newspaper carried an item on how Indians are travelling in droves to Africa. Europe has become passé and south-east is now more a neighbouring state than a country. My niece who got married this month is on a honeymoon trip to a secret destination in Thailand. Another niece is off to a trip to south-east Asia with her recently widowed mother. Her husband refused to accompany them saying the place was not interesting enough to use his limited annual leave allowance. In fact he said it was more like travelling to Digha which is a weekend getaway from Kolkata. During my niece’s marriage I met couple of other nieces who are now settled in the south-east. My retired colleague is just back from a trip to China .He and his wife had a wonderful time in exchange of Rs 60,000/- per head which was fine by their standards. My sister’s colleague an ex-college teacher was also part of this travel group to China. Last month my colleague went with her retired parents on a three week tour of Europe. Two of my relatives regularly travel abroad with their families to exotic international destinations .Both of them are working professionals in Indian Incs. My facebook page regularly carries update from contacts on their various international travels .A friend recently posted a message saying “enough of Europe”.

When we were young in middle class families international travel was unheard of. When my eldest aunt’s daughter got married to a “foreign –educated” guy in the early1950s it had created a sensation amongst our relatives. People always spoke of the guy with great reverence. In those days even professionals and business people who were known for their ability to earn money confined their leisure activities to domestic travel amongst other pursuits. Africa was a land of mystery and magic .It took me years to understand and believe that mother earth and nature were no different in other parts of the world. In my imagination everything beyond my country was a land of mars. Today’s kids would laugh at such stupidity. Recently when I asked two kids who had just returned from a holiday in France and other parts of Europe, what caught their imagination most they looked bored and uninterested. I later heard that this was not their first travel to these places. No wonder they looked at me with such wonder.