The New York Times published an article on Indian tourism to Switzerland, today. The most jarring thing about it was seeing DDLJ’s title translated in English; I’ll spare you that. π
For years, Bollywood’s producers and directors have favored the pristine backdrop of Switzerland for their films. The greatest of the Bollywood filmmakers, Yash Chopra, is a self-professed romantic who has made a point of including in virtually all his films scenes shot on location in this country’s high Alpine meadows, around its serene lakes, and in its charming towns and cities to convey an ideal of sunshine, happiness and tranquillity.
In the process, they have created an enormous curiosity about things Swiss in generations of middle-class Indians, who are now earning enough to travel here in search of their dreams.
“The moment you cross the border it is something else,” Mr. Purohit said, “where the scenario changes.”
“No noise, no pollution, no crowds,” said Kamalakar Tarkasband, 72, a retired army officer. [nyt]
No, just pretty scenery as a picturesque backdrop for photo ops wherein they imitate their favorite celluloid moments.
Raj Kapoor may have been the first Indian director to use foreign sites for shooting on location — in Venice, Paris and Switzerland — when he filmed his 1964 hit, “Sangam.” But the entire bus knew the story of how Mr. Chopra spent his honeymoon in the Swiss resort of Gstaad. [nyt]
SANGAM! That’s one of the dozen or so fillums I’ve actually seen; it was one of my father’s favorites. I loved it.
Here’s something interesting and overwhelmingly sweet, much like a gulab jamun, the round, syrup-laden dessert which often graces Indian buffets (see? I can write like a gora):
“He promised his wife on his honeymoon that every movie he made would have to have one romantic song or scene in Switzerland,” said Rajendra Choudhary, 24, who also studied management in Pune and joined the Enchanted Journey. Mr. Chopra, now 77, kept his promise. Most of the Swiss sequences are dream scenes in which lovers dance or romp on Alpine meadows strewn with flowers or roll in the snow in unlikely flimsy Indian garb on wintry slopes. [nyt]
Obligatory negativity:
But not everyone shares the dream. In June, the Zurich newspaper Tages-Anzeiger featured an article with the headline “Into the Luxury Hotel with a Gas Cooker,” noting that “in some hotels an entire caste of guests is no longer desired: the Indians.”
The article catalogued the complaints of hotel managers: guests who cook curry dishes on camping stoves in their rooms; guests who use bath oils that blacken tubs; guests who book for a husband and wife, only to show up with the entire family. [nyt]
The first complaint makes me wonder if a lack of vegetarian options is the issue. I just asked my most well-traveled friend what he ate in Switzerland and he said his most memorable meal was a repast purchased from a farmhouse; he waxed blissfully about cured meats, cheese and a good baguette. My mom can eat one out of those three. She hates cheese. She wouldn’t be knocking out some Ulli Theeyal in her room, but she’d probably be hungry. I’ve never been, so I don’t know. Maybe Switzerland is littered with veggie noms.
Asha
Since I love offpist skiing I prefer the french alps and places like La Grave, Val d’Isere and Chamonix, but I’ve heard many good things about Italy as well.
it’s like the Swiss dodging during WW2
Wow, insults to my country are now flowing fast and furious. This started as a nice post about Indians liking to tour my country.
Yes, we Swiss were bad to sit out WWII, far better you Indians who fought for your colonial masters. π
Oh, and San, in the interest of accuracy, our banks’ money doesn’t all come from “dictators and mobsters.” We have plenty from Indian government officials, who deposit during their holidays here. π Also a lot from New Yorkers. π But go on moralizing–India and USA are good at empty talk about morality. We bourgeois Swiss will just listen to them, and then take their “hot” money and then spend our cut on some bland food. B/c we’re walking stereotypes like that. π
SwissPride
I think its you who seem to have a problem here, many Indian families take pride in having a grand father who fought during the WW2, you should really work on your insults. About my WW2 comment it wasn’t really an insult but a historical fact, and a shamelessness that we have seen in Swiss bank accepting money from Saddam Hussein to Mobutu. You called it Switzerland working with the brain, I gave it another name.
Switzerland is a country that like to isolate them selves and not really be bothered with the world, its just like that. Continue with it, but don’t expect the rest of the world to love you for it.
“We have plenty from Indian government officials, who deposit during their holidays here.”
Yet another reason to call Switzerland what it is.
If the world doesn’t like Switzerland, San, it is b/c we are a mirror to the world. Gilt-plated mirror, that is. π
At any rate, back to the main thread–I hope more Indians and Indian-Americans will enjoy visits to Switzerland. And please try our Saffron Risotto–this is a very typical dish in our southern regions, and I think you will like it very much! π
Don’t worry SwissPride, Indians will continue to visit the Swiss Alps, because the movies made them love it. But forgive me for thinking it’s hilarious when they have the Himalayas just around the corner. btw, I love the offpist skiing in both Engelberg and Verbier.
Swiss companies can be (I mean the ones that are) very shady and murky entities, such as the notorious Nestle. Maybe it is the country that does in even expats like this CEO of Nestle (an Austrian)
A few months later the self-same CEO asserted that the idea of clean water as a human right is extreme! Bait and switch!
Swiss companies can be (I mean the ones that are) very shady and murky entities, such as the notorious Nestle.
Huh? Another person with weird anti-Swiss issues. Given all the children dieing from diarrhea, why is it so obvious that clean water is less of a priority than fighting global warming? Even if global warming is a more important priority, what’s up with the dismissive treatment of a question in the other direction? We Swiss are big on free speech and inquiry–so your dogmatism sticks in my throat.
heh. that explains the minaret ban, rob.
SwissPride
Don’t flatter your self, people don’t generally walk around thinking about Switzerland more than you think about Kentucky. This thread is about Switzerland and Indians traveling in the country, a lot of persons didn’t like it. Get over it.
You might try reading this entry, about an Indian who visited London, Paris and Switzerland
http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/a-foreigners-impression-of-london-paris-and-switzerland/
Switzerland is an exotic country and, it won’t be exaggerating if one asserts that it’s the first honeymoon choice of most Indians. At times, it feels like there’s an emotional connection between two countries.
http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/a-foreigners-impression-of-london-paris-and-switzerland/
Oh, I am very impressed? I am supposed to care what one person says about my country? Shall I point you to what some Swiss say about India or America? I am too cultured to be so crass–what’s your excuse for singling out a nasty take on my country? Go celebrate your grandfather who served the British in WWII if that makes you happy!
<
blockquote> That evening at a party I ran into venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, now investing in clean-energy start-ups. What did he think of Brabeck-Letmathe’s comments, I asked? “He should see his proctologist to find his head,” said Khosla, “and you can quote me.”
<
blockquote>
This Khosla ?
SwissPride
“Shall I point you to what some Swiss say about India or America?”
LOL, wasn’t that the whole discussion. So I take it that you agree then?
they don’t complain when we open swiss accounts to hide all that black money, do they?
Go celebrate your grandfather who served the British in WWII if that makes you happy!
Swisspride…why do you keep mentioning this? Like people from the subcontinent need to feel bad about how they participated in the second world war? I’m just curious…why is this your way of trying to insult south asians?
I must say I do wonder why Switzerland was never conquered?…it’s not like the Swiss kept much of an army and it is tiny. Perhpas b/c the kingdoms of Europe got what they wanted out of Switzerland w/o having to worry about sending any resources to “conquer” them. For a country that stayed neutral during a war that would have decided much of Switzerland’s fate as well as others, I can’t say how any Swiss can try and insult a south asian or korean or pole or greek or yemen or any other part of the world that was colonized.
“LOL, wasn’t that the whole discussion. So I take it that you agree then?”
I agree that we Swiss are not as friendly as the West Indians, yes. And, our food is bland. Also, we are quite boring. But I would rather be bored and healthy in Zurich then sick with people sh!tting on my doorstep, as in (ahem) much of the world.
“they don’t complain when we open swiss accounts to hide all that black money, do they?”
No, we are open to all money. Especially from your Gandhi family. They are keeping us quite busy, even with your PM Singh. π
LimoLib,
I searched around the intertubes, and hey presto,
look what I found from the Climate Scientist Dr. Vikram 5 ΓΒ· Vikram on January 13, 2006 4:40 PM ΓΒ· Direct link There was an odd story about VK some years ago: Water evaporates under the Sun
With gazillions of his own money invested in clean technologies with 90% chance of failure, Vinod is putting his money where his mouth is. Vinod’s hypocrisy (assuming Dr.Vikram didn’t pull that quote of his…) says nothing about concrete reality of climate change. And LimoLib we are in 2010 not 1991!
SwissPride, which is why The Nestle Chairman (not CEO) Peter Brabeck-Letmathe …said that the idea of water as a basic human right was “extreme” and that he believed water should have value like any foodstuff.
SwissPride, Switzerland’s 7.8 million vs. India’s 1.3 billion + US’s 300 million is a little too one-sided for a ***sing match.
Swiss Cheese is good on bread, terrible for argument.
PS, Seriously? You can’t understand why a Swiss or a Thai would be proud of not being colonized, unlike an Indian or a Greek? How can I say, other than that being colonized is humiliating to your culture?! Yes, you can and should move past it, but don’t expect me to deny the obvious.
why a Swiss or a Thai would be proud of not being colonized
Yeah, I don’t see any reason to be proud of that. Particularly for a country like Switzerland. if you take great pride in martial prowess, it’s not martial prowess that kept Switzerland from being “colonize” is it? Like I said, most noncolonized countries, that were weak (like Switz.) often served the interests of the powers that be, the countries that often b/c of chance in geography and history, might have had more power at that particular time, w/o colonialization.
It might also be that the Prussians, French etc felt that Swiss people were their racial equal, as opposed to the Irish, whom the Brits, in the science of that time, tried to show were a different race. Lots of factors including the fact that certain areas of the world, such as the subcontinent, were very wealthy in resources and culture, and very appealing to try and take control of.
As I said I have to lol at someone telling me my grandfather, whether he fought with or against the Brits, needs to be ashamed of his choices, particularly when that person comes from Swiss.
As a Swiss, who’s autonomy and culture would have more than likely been threatened or engulfed, had the Nazis won the war, you should be thanking the brave Americans, Indians, Brits who fought for you…:)
I’m sorry Anna, I’m derailing this thread…and I won’t say anything more about this.
I loved this thread. So interesting to hear about the experiences of Indians in Switz and the reasons for it. From what I saw of Switz I thought it was a beautiful country…hopefully the Swiss will learn to be more welcoming of their tourists so if I visit it again I can have a nice time; I’d rather visit Himlayan foothils though, after what I hear…now that is a beautiful area of the world.
Yeah, I don’t see any reason to be proud of that. Particularly for a country like Switzerland. if you take great pride in martial prowess, it’s not martial prowess that kept Switzerland from being “colonize” is it?
Wow, who didn’t teach you history? When the world was waking up from the Dark Ages, setting the stage for the Renaissance–>Enlightenment–>modernity ( = all modern cultures, using european stuff like cars, medicine, telephone, fertilizer, etc.) it was the Swiss pikemen who battled on behalf of the Italain city-states where modernity began. Who is keeping you in the dark about history?? Do you know anything about Swiss history? No!
You can find that story on Google groups archives. I remember reading it. Wonder if he ever paid that bill.
So we’re in 2010. Dont know about what Dr Vikram has to say, but here’s what Dr. Joseph Romm, the editor of Climate Progress says on Khosla (I hope Romm’s qualifications meet your high standards: Romm was Acting Assistant Secretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy during the Clinton Administration where he directed $1 billion in research, development, demonstration, and deployment of clean energy and carbon-mitigating technology. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from MIT. In 2008, Romm was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for Γ’β¬Εdistinguished service toward a sustainable energy future and for persuasive discourse on why citizens, corporations, and governments should adopt sustainable technologies.Γ’β¬Β)
http://climateprogress.org/2010/07/02/is-anyone-more-incoherent-than-vinod-khosla/
I’m sure you will somehow find a way to connect this to a “GOPer conspiracy” based on your posts/raves on this blog
SwissPride
This is sort of hilarious, people point out that that Switzerland isn’t very friendly country, and you try to defend Switzerland by… pointing out that India is poor.
People think that Switzerland is a country that take money from criminals, and you defend it by pointing out that the Gandhi family hide their bribes in Swiss banks.
People point out that the Swiss dodged during WW2, and you make fun of Indians having fought with the allies during WW2.
Well thank you for confirming everything we said about Switzerland.
btw, for the record. This is a site for american-indians, I would guess most of us have US passports here.
Your right, in world history class, Switz was a blip, unlike India, when I was studying that in grade school so didn’t know about the swiss pikeman mercenaries…lol. And that is supposed to be the reason that Switz, having no military strength is the reason for not being conquered? There’s plenty of martial mercenaries from South Asian history :). So there were Swiss mercenaries for the French too huh? And this happened in the 1500s when these mercenaries were at their height. Impressive! Have to still thank those Indian, Brit and Americans brave soldiers who fought and died against the Nazis in more the 20th century though.
You are not making much sense SwissPride. So b/c I know I’m derailing this thread and I’m speaking to someone who invokes mercenarie individuals from the 1500s to show some sort of martial strength, I’m going to assume you have little else to say in your pride of not being a “colony”; which i view in recent history, as playing the role of a pacifist so others can die for your liberties.
“This is sort of hilarious, people point out that that Switzerland isn’t very friendly country, and you try to defend Switzerland by… pointing out that India is poor.”
That’s not my point at all. Plenty of places in the world are poor–what is stupid is to be poor and proud. If one is poor, one needs to change the culture–yes, to be more Swiss–making sure everyone has clean water, every child learns to read and write, eat what is healthy and keep hygiene based on science rather than what your superstitions tell you, etc. Stop throwing stones at Switzerland, it is beyond ridiculous. We ban minarets because Islam is the enemy of Europe for 100’s of years (so, worse than Nazism or Communism, which each lasted well under a century!)–or, didn’t you learn that either in your “history” lessons?
Swisspride, – and I won’t point out your obvious ignorance in assuming “modernity” you know science and stuff, which forms the basis of so much “modernity” today, somehow only comes from european culture. I’ll let you do some digging and see others take on modernity. Just fyi, when one little part of the world, was going thru the Dark Ages, some other parts of the world weren’t :).
SwissPride
Hey buddy, lots of us visited Switzerland, we didn’t like the people and will take our business else where. Deal with it. Frankly I think you should be happy about it.
“I’m going to assume you have little else to say in your pride of not being a “colony”; which i view in recent history, as playing the role of a pacifist so others can die for your liberties.”
PS, if you insist on not understanding the basic category of why a people who have not been colonized feel healthier than a people who have been colonized and servile to their masters (e.g., Indian troops in WWII), I honestly don’t know where to begin. I’m not the one who brought this up anyway, San did–I still think it’s better for Switzerland to have sat out a stupid intra-Euro war (WWII) than for the Indians to have fought for Britain in it (what did this have to do with India, anyway?!).
SwissPride
For having such great history lessons it seems amazing that you have missed that the first W in WW2 stand for WORLD and that Japan where standing on the border in Burma to invade India.
I’m sure it was great for the Swiss to sit out the WW2 and watch millions being exterminated, but I can’t understand why you expect the world to celebrate Switzerland over it? How the Swiss acted during WW2, or their banking moral has everything to do with Switzerlands relationship to the outside world, and their hostility against foreigners. It do seem relevant since the thread was partly about the Swiss being annoyed over Indians visiting their country.
I feel very healthy, I think most of us here do. I would be more worried if I went in to a Swiss-American blog and started to rail about India.
i see that swisspride had no response to my minaret response. kind of destroys his claim about swiss respect for free speech, doesn’t it?
SwissPride
“I still think it’s better for Switzerland to have sat out a stupid intra-Euro war (WWII)”
Seriously, this cracks me up…
hilarious defense of swiss pride in free speech, rob.
rob is an indian american
why a people who have not been colonized feel healthier than a people who have been colonized and servile to their masters
Stop being so dense SwissPride.
Again let me break it down for you.
Indians or other areas of the world that were colonized do not need to be ashamed.
Places in the world that were weak, such as Swiss, (which despite the dead mercenaries from the 1500s lol) could have easily been conquered and often weren’t b/c they were manipulated w/o being an actual colony. Got it? Take pride in whatever you want, but I can assure that I, as an Indian-American, do not feel any stigma from a small part of our history (a tiny part of the long history of South Asia – you should read up on the scientific and mathematical discoveries from that region by the way) when we happened to be a colony of a dominant power.
The world’s regions goes through ups and downs. One regions Dark Ages is another regions Renaissance. It’s human history, not a big deal. Your more than welcome to take pride in your mercenaries, in your ability to play into the hands of dominant European powers of recent history, in any part of your history, but I also have right not to be impressed.
WWII had reverberations beyond europe mind you. What’s wrong with the history they teach you in Switz!
Sorry, PS, where are the contributions of Asia for the past 500 years to humanity?? What am I missing? Yes, before modernity medieval Europeans were also sitting in sh!t just like Asians–but, one group has moved on, eh? Why do you want to come to our countries if you hate us? Seriously, please stay away unless you agree that Euro culture is better. I say nothing about race–an Indian baby raised by Swiss parents will be bourgeois and successful!
SwissPride
We went to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, not Switzerland silly… I could quite frankly not care less about Europe.
“Seriously, please stay away unless you agree that Euro culture is better.”
I think most people here agreed that they should stay away from Switzerland, so what’s your problem?
Please don’t feed the trolls, Mutineers. Especially because we just banned them. And now, for an on-topic sort of evening…
I don’t know much about desi tourists in Switzerland in particular–any particularly high-volume of tourists in any country gets noticed and usually not in a nice way—just the way it is. What kinds of rep do Euros have in India? But this nonsense about the Swiss not building anything is really weird–they are old hands at banking, probably a result of being the birthplace of Calivinism. They are among the few countries to actually have voted on which religion they would adopt as a national “faith.” Saved them a lot of trouble. A lot of science and technology came out of Switzerland. They are not known for the fine arts (at least I don’t think so), or the arts of love-making, or for style, or cuisine (except for chocolate and dairy–but even the dairy was better, to my surprise, in France and Italy.) They are, however, very much known for their efficient left-brain mode of thinking so I think we must accept that the Swiss built their own country, but they built it as Switzerland, not New York City or Rio de Janeiro or Mumbai. They were famous as watchmakers dating from hundreds of years ago–there is a mathematical precision to the more elevated Swiss minds. Euler, sometimes considered the greatest mathematician to have lived (well, some Tamils might digress), invented pi and some other uber-formulas I had to become familiar with while designing a web page devoted to him. I think that’s why this post caught my attention. In any case, a few entrepreneurs might set up a restaurants there, please the spice-hunting tourists–and they are not just desis– and save the hotels’ soft furnishings. Even as an American I was frustrated in Switzerland for food. One of the best countries, to my surprise, was Belgium. The French speaking Swiss were reasonably charming, but the German speaking-Swiss had very strange, off-putting ways of address. Not all were guilty, but snappingcomments were common.
“dogma,” give me a break–I post something on food last night after a long time and now I’m responsible for a pissy Swiss guy?! As if.
I have lived in the US for several years now and have never been to Europe. I have traveled quite a bit in the US and Canada, and can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would want to visit Switzerland, when all the vistas and meadows you want can be found in this part of the world. The Swiss seem to be terrible innkeepers and hosts (my takeaway about rural Mississippi at a diner, “How do I say your name, xxxxx, did I get that right?”), skinflints (whereas when my wife asked for coffee at a pizza place in Buffalo, NY, the lady at the counter, “Honey, we don’t serve coffee, but could I get you some from the staff room? It’s free dear”), lousy restaurateurs (every hop,step and jump in N. America, and you will find some local specialty, and should I talk about Mexico?), seem to hate kids, (Waitress at diner in Upstate NY near Cooperstown, “You have daughter? Wow, I have four children, all boys :-(” My children getting to pose for a picture with a wild bunch of bikers at Breezewood)
Paris for the sleaze and the alternative internationalism, and all those cafes, London for its tours, Scandinavia, Belgium, Netherlands for the beer, and bonhomie, Eastern Europe for the castles and the bargains, the Baltics for their deep snow woods, Adriatic, Mediterranean, Aegean for the sunshine, olives, ouzo, and the sea. Now why would I want to visit Switzerland?
Thanks to Swiss Pride, I am in no hurry to visit Helvetica, unless of course it’s like this
OK, can we stop resorting to extremes when bashing Switzerland? The topic was how they behave towards Indian tourists. Let us not revise history and make them out to be mediocre or average at everything when we know that they have excelled at more than stashing dictators ill gotten savings. Hey, I will be grateful to the Swiss for Milk Chocolate.
Would it be wrong to assume most of these goupies are gujjus? well in that case u can’t blame the swiss for losing their cool. hell u can’t tolerate their behaviour while holidaying in lonavala!
i have visited a lot of west europe, and have a lot of friends from there. a good deal of these people are really sweet folks. i last visited switzerland in 2002. for the most part, i was with friends and didn’t find hostility. i was a grad student then, and for my capabilities, i spent a lot, stayed in little local places—food was a small problem because i am vegetarian, but then i love cheese.
8 years later, i have a lot more spending power but i avoid travel in west europe as far as possible. the nastiness begins at the visa consulates, continues the moment you land at their airports and generally, i no longer encounter any friendliness any more. every taxi driver tries to me cheat me (way worse than any auto driver in chennai if you have been there). one even used racist epithets for me (while talking on the phone) when i was in the car—they assume i don’t speak any french/german. some of the above, some of the time may just be hard luck. but all of them, all the time, combined with the other gems of hospitality: “imprisonment” of indian passengers, including infants, with no food, on delayed flights in europe, etc, just make it very clear what exactly they think of us.
while west europe is no longer an important place for the kind of work i do, sometimes i still have to go. so if i must travel on work, i see no point in staying after my work is over. i usually leave the very night i am done—no matter how strenuous it may be. i don’t think of europe for vacation, and fly over the pacific to india. when i go, i don’t spend nearly as much as i do if i go elsewhere, i don’t patronize european airlines, i stay in the hiltons or marriotts rather than any local european hotel. if you are going to be racist to me, fine. but as far as i can help it, not on my money.
i know “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. but frankly, the way i see it, i lose very little in the bargain. our time in this world is finite, and i would like to spend it well rather than suffer heartburn because of some bigot. after all, unlike 50 years ago when the racists held all power, they dont any more. and i hope they wont in my lifetime.
one thing i have realized, though, is that a lot of people are fairly nasty when it comes to treatment of indians. and indians are very naive—they defend indefensible cases of racism because they want to “fit in”. or because they want to think of themselves as “thoughtful” or “even handed”. in a way it is admirable, but stupid as well.
Bytewords, it is also the Stockholm Syndrome at work
“they are old hands at banking, probably a result of being the birthplace of Calivinism”
The History Channel disagrees. Their version goes like this: The Knight Templars did fight wars to get a path to Jerusalem, but they also diversified into banking. After some 200 years, the Knight Templars became unpopular. So they took their money and ran to sleepy mountainous regions in Europe. And they started the original Swiss banks.
52 ΓΒ· SwissPride on July 13, 2010 1:18 PM ΓΒ· Direct link it’s like the Swiss dodging during WW2
Wow, insults to my country are now flowing fast and furious. This started as a nice post about Indians liking to tour my country. Yes, we Swiss were bad to sit out WWII, far better you Indians who fought for your colonial masters. π
–> The Indians, however, had a Jewish community from 587 BC onwards where they were treated with respect and with great dignity. They were not only protected, but with happiness, they also helped protect Indians by enlisting in the armed forces of India.
–> The Swiss were the btches of the Romans, the Greeks, German barbarians, and Napoleon. Moreover, today, they are btches for blood money and their pathological greed. Their opaque banking, along with the the Singaporeans and others, is conducive to most corrupt regimes in the world.
India was conquered by the British and other Europeans. However, our conscience is clear when they left, and in the words of Mahatma Gandhi (whose family does NOT have funds in your devil-worshipping banking institutions): “When the British leave, let’s wish them farewell and God Bless since they are our friends.” On the other hand, your people have a strain on your conscious, otherwise you wouldn’t be here defending what a great people you are.
(On that note, I’d like to remind my South Asian brothers and sisters that the Swiss are not our enemies. They are our friends, and let’s be nice and fair to SwissPride.)
–> This is nouveau riche thinking. Us high-minded Desis know at the instinctive level that your money should NOT be the root of your pride. We have a beautiful Shiva statue dancing on the demon-child who represents false-ego, my friend. Our cultureS (because the Sikhs, Christians, Muslims and others there) realize that this is a false pride – a “maya” – an illusion. We have, to paraphrase our Zoroastrian friends (who paraphrased Buddhists) “Good thoughts, words, and actions”, but maybe not good portfolios. It is our purity of actions and thoughts that make us proud, my friend SwissPride. We can be dirt poor – and many of us are – but we are still cocky as hell, because we all know that money doesn’t buy righteousness or a clear-conscious.
To this, I invite you, SwissPride, to befriend an Indian with an open-heart and an open-mind. Read about our amazingly rich history, our diversity, our inclusivisity, our natural comraderie with the West, and how, it seems, we have always been on the right side of history. On our end, we will always speak up for what’s right – even if it works antagonistic towards us since we’re not materialistic but instead, idealistic; we will always believe in something greater than euros, francs, and Dollars; and we’ll continue being the friends of everyone who reciprocates their hand in friendship.
You took the words out of my mouth jyotsana. Just today (before reading this thread) I was thinking about poor V S Naipaul and his Stockholm syndrome. I live in Europe and of all the Indians I am acquainted with the only one who does not bother to engage with the locals around. This also means I have refused to learn their language. Most of the Indians (and they are usually fresh out of India unlike me who has lived practically my whole life out of India) really do want to please so much. They try and explain away a lot and they must have experienced at least a little of what I have. Anyway, Europe is a sinking ship so really don’t bother what they think.
Do you guys even know what Stockholm Syndrome is? No one forced any Indians to visit or work in those countries. Eagerness to fit in is not the same as Stockholm Syndrome. And what is so great about not wanting to learn the local language if you live in Europe?
I have no problem not spending my money in such inhospitable places. I refuse to travel by Air France after hearing about what they did to Indians a couple of years ago. While I do not boycott Lufthansa, I did experience variable treatment. My plane from the US to Frankfurt was great and so was the service. once I got on the Frankfurt-Bombay leg, it was like a second rate airline. So while it may not make me boycott them, if things are almost equal in price, I am skipping the Lufthansa option.
Anyway, I had no idea so many Indians had such a desire to visit Switzerland based on a few Hindi movies.
Hello Lovelies! π
I would like to address several points that I feel are relevant here.
Swiss tourists and “payback” that some people are referring to. Payback for what, exactly? I didn’t know Swiss were involved in colonization, or in being uncouth tourists. I’ve never heard the phrase “obnoxious Swiss” like we hear “obnoxious American” or “ugly American” when it comes to tourism. Moreover, as a world travelling myself, even the “ugly American” stereotype does not really fly. In India especially I see Americans and Europeans going out of their way to “fit in” – even conforming to sometimes uncomfortable and weather-inappropriate clothing norms so as not to disturb the local sensibilities and invite hostility upon themselves. However, I will say that there is indeed one group of American and European “tourist” I’ve come across in India that does indeed live up to the reputation of the “ugly American” and “uncouth tourist” – that of American and European Christian missionaries – but then again – they have a very clear, precise agenda – which is to convert non-Christian Indians to their religion a.s.a.p. But everyone else? The regular American and European tourists or yoga enthusiasts who travel to India? They are respectful and try to fit in. Sure, sometimes they may get frustrated with shop-keepers over-charging them or any number of other inconveniences they face in India and give way to a cross word or two – but for the most part they are respectful and open to “experiencing new things”.
Americans of all backgrounds (including Desi Americans) sometimes make the mistake of assuming that all countries want to be like us: Politically Correct, Multi-Cultural, Melting Pot. They don’t. Some may, but some, especially with a more or less homeogenous culture and ethnic background – like the Swiss – do not. Nor should they be forced to be. America is an “experiment” really. We are a people who loses touch overtime and generations of our cultures and heritages. Not everyone wants to be a cultureless mish-mash like us. Regarding whether or not the “American experiment” is working or not, I guess that remains to be seen.
I find it ironic that any non-Abrahamic-faith-based Desi would begrudge the Swiss their “limits on minerets” rule and call it “payback”. I personally love Islamic architecture but one can build a masjid (mosque) or Islamic center WITHOUT minerets. In fact, where I live, there are several. Minerets are from where the ADAAN rings out and although a 5 am (and earlier!) call to prayer may be welcome in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Morroco, etc – I’m sure you can understand why such an early call over loudspeakers would not be welcome in Switzerland.
Regarding “payback” – if you really want to “go there” – we could even say that an “anti-mineret” rule is “payback” to Muslims for razing Hindu temples to the ground! That’s why I find it ironic that any Desi who is not Muslim would try to play the “payback card” with regards to Europeans. And anway, the Swiss did not colonize any Muslim country to beginwith so “payback” is irrelevant here.
Similarly, I think ALL countries should REQUIRE prospective immigrants to undergo “cultural sensitivity” courses BEFORE approving them for entry so that immigrants everywhere, to ANY country, can be aware of the cultural and societal norms of the country they aspire to become a citizen of, and then decide whether or not it’s a place they can blend into.