06 April 2008

Dollops of ghee.....served with love!!!

Glorious, luxurious, magnanimous- I am still recovering from my recent visit to Amritsar. After a fulfilling visit to the peaceful Golden Temple, we took an auto to navigate our way through crowded roads, lanes and by lanes in our mission to find the best paranthas, delicious chicken tikka, rich lassi, crispy jalebi...(Ok, stop now, I can hear telling myself!!)
The love of a true-blue Punjabi for his guest is reflected in the quantity of food (mostly laden with dollops of ghee) he offers and kind of forces them to eat. We met many such jaunty restaurant owners, who loved food and loved it even more to watch their guests relish.

P.S: My gym instructor fails to understand how on earth I could possibly put on those 3 kilos in 3 days....the love of my Punjabi hosts is indeed showing!!!

Goa, Yoga or the Great Indian Wedding

Brand India added just another feather to its ever-increasing repertoire of achievements. From emerging as one of the largest economies in the world, it is now being touted as one of the world’s greatest holiday destinations offering the ‘authentic’ oriental experience—be it massages, marriages or medical tourism.
Once the much-hyped land of rope-walkers and snake-charmers, India is now basking in its newfound status as the spiritual and the spirited. The government, too, is investing millions in luring the globetrotters to the country’s exotic locales.
Liz-Hurley and Chatwal-Sachdev, the recent celebrity couples to marry in India, were extravaganzas where both bride and groom flew in from hundreds of miles away—only to savour an authentic Indian wedding. Set against the backdrop of heritage sites like the Mehrangarh Fort and the Umaid Bhawan Palace, these opulent bashes were replete with naach-gaana and all such exotic fanfare that make the ‘great Indian wedding’.
Marriage Tourism, according to experts, is a million-dollar industry which not only brings in foreign exchange but also provides the much-needed impetus to local folk artistes, handicrafts and all things quintessentially Indian. And, as India vies for a share of the lucrative Medical Tourism market, Ayurveda, an ancient Hindu healing method, has also seen resurgence through the techniques like meditation and yoga especially to wealthy tourists.
India hogged the spotlight even at the recently held International Tourism Bourse 2007 in Berlin, the largest tourism fair in the world. As the official partner country, it showcased its vast array of new tourism products—also a part of its Incredible India campaign. So, if Europe has wine gourmet tour guides, India’s flaunting its tea-tasting tourist circuits. Pitted against the luxurious spas of the world are India’s traditional massages and beauty treatments. That apart there are pilgrimages, heritage trips and Eco-tourism along with the sea-sand-and-sun experience that is Goa. Also touted as the next big thing is Convention Tourism—providing just the right mix of work and pleasure to business tourists.
Tourism experts say that the country has a fascinating array of exotic locales, quality resorts and a 5000-year-old rich culture—plenty to lure every traveler. According to the 2006 Conde Nast Readers’ Travel Awards, India is the flavour of the season among overseas holidayers. It features as the fourth most attractive holiday destinations of the world, ahead of traditional hot spots like US, France, Singapore, Thailand and South Africa.
International tourists visiting India can now look forward to better travel links (roads, airports and railways), lower fares and overall improved infrastructure. A surge of hospitality properties—including service apartments in hot-spots like Goa, Kerala and metros like Bangalore and Mumbai—are contributing to this upward trend in tourism.
India’s landscape is changing, what with its growing political and economic stability and increasing opportunities for business and investment. The government’s proactive policies vis-à-vis the vibrant Incredible India campaign, tax concessions to promote infrastructure, budget airlines and FDI flow into tourism are boosting tourism in the country like never before.
Figures have it that Indian tourism is a significant segment of the country’s economy—estimated at a whopping US$ 32 billion, 5.3 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP). India’s domestic tourism is expected to increase by 15–20 per cent p.a. over the next five years.
As more and more tourists flocking India, their number is expected to rise to 5 million in 2007. And, with the country hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games, this share will only increase to about 1.5 per cent in 2010 from a mere 0.52 per cent in 2006. Incredible indeed, India’s tourism industry is poised to grow to about US$ 90 billion—from the current US$ 39 billion—in the coming 10 years.
All efforts to diversify tourist attractions by offering new products such as adventure tourism, wellness tourism, medical tourism and golf tourism will surely spur international as well as on domestic tourism. Poised to be the ‘No. 1 tourism destination’, India is sending out the invitations: Come one, come all!