Touring troubles

Continuing with my Murud -Janjira trip tales, as we wandered from one location to another, I again realised that the tourism development board in India needs to take a long hard look at how they are woefully underultilizing the tourism potential of India. I mean, there are abundant attractive places across India and still we lack the basic presentation and packaging skills to make these places tourist worthy.

Lets take the example of Murud Janjira itself. The Janjira fort will put Alcatraz Island to shame in terms of location and architecture. Yet today if you visit Alcatraz, it is a tourist delight whereas Janjira is a nightmare. Everything at Alcatraz looks neat, clean, preserved and presentable, while Janjira is exactly the opposite, unclean, unkept and in shambles. The biggest distinction probably between the two is that while Alcatraz has been given a national recreation area status, no one knows what status Janjira holds with Indian tourism authorities.

And its just not about bestwoing a status. I am sure India has many national monuments that are lying neglected and ravaged. The question is why is there so much apathy then . Don't we care about our tourism industry and the tourist at all ? Or is it just plain indifference.

I am leaving you with food some food for thought - at the best and most popular of tourist detsinations in India there isn't even a provision of clean and hygenic loo and pure plain drinking water. Its not asking for more. But then I guess over half of India's population too is asking for these two things.

So dear tourists you are in a long queue.

Suit Yourself

I recently came across one of the most amusing sights I have seen in my life .

I was on a weekend break to a place called Murud. Its on the Konkan coast and about 200 km from Pune. Murud's biggest attraction is the 12th century Janjira fort which is located right in the Arabian Sea. Janjira was therefore a must watch for me and wifey.

As we were being shown around this vast 22 acre fort by the local guide, I saw something catch my attention other than the ruins of the place. I strained my eyes to get a good look at this sight and I even pinched myself hard to ensure that it was some hallucination. No it wasn't , it was real - Amidst all the tourist flocking Janjira that day the person in the picture had me awestruck.

Here I was seeing a fully suited man on a sultry, scorching and dusty afternoon at a place which was swarmed by bermudas, trunks, t-Shirts, jeans, cycling shorts and anything but formal wear. I double checked whether there was a 'complete man' ad being shot on location somewhere. But there was no sign of camera and crew. I enquired around if there was some corporate event being organised at the Janjira relics (you never know you see, with cash crunch and economic slowdown some wise corporates may still host year end celebration at historic depleted places - it could serve as a precursor to the sign of things to come). But there was no sign of any corporate extrvaganza here.

The only logic I could draw seeing the man in the attire that he was in, was that may be this was a case of sheer nostalgia - the fellow was wearing his 25-30 year old wedding suit which he till then had never got a chance to re wear. Or, probably this was a brand new suit which the gentlemen had bought and he wanted to whether it in tough and trying conditions. Or even better, this could have been the strategy for the soft launch of a new line of comfortable suits and tux,which an MNC was launching specially from Janjira(market research may have indicated that).

I have taken my guesses, now you try figuring out the reason and suit yourself.