Domestic tourism in India
How many languages and cultures did you cross lately, in the sky?
Premium Economy (PE) in AirIndia's new Airbus 350 is a compact small cabin of 24 big sofa type seats, set in 3 rows of 2-4-2. Brilliant for the block time 2:50 hour flight, Delhi to Bengaluru, domestic, over 9 States and as many, if not more, languages.
The westernised cabin crew very politely asks the lady next to me - "cream and sugar?" The lady, Gangetic belt, looks up blankly, so I intervene - "doodh aur cheeni leejiyega?" Next round, the same cabin crew, speaks to the lady in almost the same dialect. Smiles so wide!! Thankfully, the Airbus 350 is also a wide body.
By my estimate, about 80% of the people in this small PE cabin are watching Indian regional language and Hindi films. But then comes the food? We get served a weird combo of foreign sounding hot food with a frozen samosa.
Why a frozen samosa? It is a gazpacho starter. Back in economy, the options include hot paratha, daal, sabzi and rice. The non-veg Indian food must have been good, in Economy, it was over. I am offered a follow-up vegetarian casserole. Again, something sounding Eurospeak.
I imagine the loneliness of air passengers travelling alone in the front of the plane. Eurospeak Veg next to Euro non-veg. “Creamer” from a small plastic packet. European sort of attempts in Premium classes.
A bottle of something travels full and lonely down below in the hold, in my suitcase, I miss it a lot. These are the moments in life when a stiff drink becomes essential.
So. Walk to the galley, between PE and Business Class, ask for some more meetha, not going to be allowed any sweets once home, and gobble another 2 desserts, assorted mousse type. Lovely.
I try to watch SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER on the superb IFE system. The sector is bumpy, typical monsoon shake, rattle but can not hear the roar. A generation of us in India thought Umrika was John Travolta. English speaking fastly-fastly.
+++
Domestic tourism by air in India needs a serious re-think. From an era when most air travel was visibly work related, Anglo-Saxon type of dominance in passengers and crew, now even on metro routes, and even more on non-metro routes, by all appearances, travel is for all sorts of reasons. Including tourism.
The flaw in conventional tourism for Indians is the vertical segregation of domestic and international. A Delhi to Nepal or London flight is considered international. A Delhi to Peninsular India or the North-East, just two more examples, is considered domestic.
Land in Nepal or London from Delhi or even Mumbai, and chances are you may imagine that you have arrived in very similar cultural and social destinations, food as well as people and languages.
Land in Peninsular India or the North-East, and chances are that you may suddenly realise there is so much more new by way of culture, society, food as well as people and languages.
The driver who picks me up at Bengaluru Airport speaks English, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Arabic, Bengali and Marathi. Almost all of his regular driving, cab and bus, has been in Peninsular India. He has driven me earlier too and we are on friendly terms, the driving time is about 2:30 minutes, so we stop for a bite en-route.
We address each other by name. The mutual honorifics are relevant to age, not social status nor servitude, incidentally. He adds “appa” and I add “ji”. Now and then he suggests that I should feel free to use “thamma” if possible.
So, we stop at a darshini, evening rush-hour, pay for quick idli-dip to a roving order-taker in the parking lot itself, move in to the dining hall, wash hands, food is ready on the self-service counter, eat standing, freshen up, and are moving back on the road again in about 12 minutes. Welcome to Bengaluru.
+++
Tourism in the domestic Indian context could probably do with a re-think. Anything over 600-1000 kms away from home base by road or rail is as good as international tourism, without the borders, if new experiences are being sought. Domestic air-travel even more so.
When we hear that such and such European or Far Eastern destination received xx million tourists, well? Half or more of European tourists are other Europeans/Brits on weekend breaks. Likewise Far East - look carefully, and you see more from neighbouring countries.
Domestic tourism in India could be re-visited and reviewed? By distance and travel time?
0–600 km or elevation changes less than 600 metres : Local visitors
500–1,000 km or elevation changes of 600 metres: Regional sightseers
1,000–2,000 km or elevation changes of 1000 metres: Continental vacationers
2,000+ km or elevation changes of 2000 metres: True Long-Haul explorers, globe-trotters.
Me?
I’m a global traveller. My t-shirt says so too.
(Aside - please don’t call us “Bhaiya”, Sir, he tells me