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Subject: Bangalore and Mysore
Posted: 29 Dec 2004 5:26 pm
Hi Amy.
Thanks for your comments - I'll do my best to reply to your points.
First up, I hope my writing hasn't caused you any offence, but it's satire in a very British vein, and I think you may have read my Mysore and Bangalore pieces with different expectations to those of the author. Basically, I'm taking the piss, but in the fond manner that forms the basis for an awful lot of humour in England. If you don't spot the humour, this sort of writing can sound like nothing but sour grapes and harsh criticism, but if you read my site with your tongue firmly inserted in your cheek, you may see that I'm simply being satirical.
I would also recommend you check out a bit more of my writings on India, because then I would hope you won't criticise me for not taking the time to understand the culture. Taken as a whole, my oeuvre on India is full of insights, observations and fascinating cultural tit-bits, but it's written from a definite viewpoint, mine (it's difficult to write from any other viewpoint!) For example, I take great enjoyment from journeys that go horribly wrong, whether by train, boat or bus, and every journey I take that turns into a journey from hell, I gleefully document in all its jaw-dropping amazement.
This has nothing to do with not doing research, which is what you seem to be implying. Why does writing about a bus journey from hell imply that I did no research, and that I had no idea that the buses would be like this? Of course I knew the buses would be bad; by this point in my travels I'd been writing about awful Asian bus journeys for months, so this was certainly no new experience (see my writings on Indonesia in particular). But every experience, particularly one so full of satirical potential as a bad bus journey, is a great opportunity for writing about the travel experience, to write about it from a viewpoint of amazement helps to point out the absurdity of the experience.
Anyone can write about malls and restaurants; I write about how I feel about malls and restaurants, and if I feel satirical, that's how I write. It has nothing to do with a lack of research, but everything to do with an eye for a story and how to tell it.
To pull a few points from your posting:
"The people in Bangalore were so friendly and were always smiling at me. People came up to meet me and shook my hands. I would say India had some of the warmest people I have ever met."
I agree: India is the friendliest country I've ever visited, and this is a common theme in all my Indian writing. But I found Bangalore comparatively cold (note: 'comparatively'😉. Did you travel round much of India when you were there, or spend much time exploring outside of Bangalore? If so, it'd be interesting if you found the comparative friendliness different; people were certainly friendly in Bangalore, but compared to the countryside, I found they were less open and warm, not unlike city dwellers the world over.
"When I was browsing in the stores the owners/employees were bringing me items, opening items to show me, asking me what I needed, what I was specifically looking for and never exhausted on being of help to me. Where else would you find this?"
Um... throughout the whole of Asia, for a start! Anywhere involving shops and sales is going to bring out the friendliest in the shopkeeper. Have you ever tried showing interest in a carpet shop in Marrakech? Or how about trying to ignore the salesmen of Agra? How about the amazingly helpful salesmen of Bamako? Have you seen them sense blood? They do it by being amazingly friendly... and then not letting go.
This happens everywhere in the developing world, it just doesn't happen in the West. I wouldn't mistake it for genuine friendliness; it's motivated by salesmanship, and it's just capitalism at work. This is not to say that people aren't friendly in shops, but pointing out that a place is friendly by saying its shopkeepers are keen is... well, not an argument I'd use.
"As far as the gentleman who had been drinking, you find people like that in every culture."
You do, and I write about them in other cultures, too. It doesn't mean I have to be nice about them. 😀
"While reading your article, I couldn’t help but feel that you were looking for the negative."
Only in the sense of making a joke out of that negative. Dark humour - which I purvey - picks at the negatives and turns it into something to smile about. It might not be happy-bunny-rabbit humour, but it's humour nonetheless. It makes me laugh, anyway, and rather a lot of others too. 😀
In conclusion, do try reading some more of my travel writing, and hopefully you'll see that not only is my writing well researched and the product of more travelling experience than most people get in a lifetime, but that it's actually rather uplifting. If, however, you can't see why anyone would see my writing as anything other than ill-researched grumpiness, then I guess we probably just have different senses of humour.
Also, remember that I wrote this in 1998, which is some time ago now. Things change, and that's worth bearing in mind too. Six years is a long time in the development of a city like Bangalore...
But I do hope you read more of my writing and can get into it. Life's so much fun if you don't take it seriously, I find... 😀
Best wishes,
Mark
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