Recently a good friend of mine, choose to book a suit in Taj Exotica, Goa, for his honeymoon.
While the primary reason behind choosing a 5 star hotel was the facilities, location and sense of exoticness it brought. It was also due to the fact that Taj Exotica has a private beach for its guests and my friend wanted to stay away from the public beaches. Since newlyweds, young couples and ladies are often at the receiving end of lewd comments being passed by the rowdy elements, who throng touristy places like Goa.
Something I have personally seen happening at Manali, where couples of honeymooners en route to Rohtang, were being teased by a bunch of sexually deprived morons, who seemed to have traveled to such a beautiful place, just to pass lewd comments and ogle at girls and couples.
Since I was traveling with my family, it was annoying and embarrassing enough (even though we weren’t at the receiving end of those comments) for me to consider walking up to these guys and giving them a nice beating, and to even think about not coming back to Manali and Rohtang in particular, even though Manali is one my favorite holiday destination.
It’s not like that only the uneducated locals and tourists behave in this manner, majority of people like these, belong to decent families (at least financially) and are educated enough to understand that the type of behavior they are indulging in, isn’t at all appropriate. Yet they choose to behave in this manner and in fact pick the destination for their holidays, based on how “good the crowd†is.
No wonder then that well to do families and individuals prefer to head to resorts, where they can have all the activities in the protective and safe environment. While people who aren’t as financially well off, have to choose to ignore such activities taking place around them and try and enjoy their holiday.
Authorities on the other hand don’t seem to pay any attention to this, a fact reflected by the numerous wine shops that have opened up, in and around these touristy places and lack of security, which further adds fuel to the fire and makes these hooligans feel they are free to act the way they want, because they are on a holiday and deserve to have a good time, even at the expense of others!
Such events not only paint a dastardly image in front of foreign tourists, it paints an even grim picture in the minds of Indians, because we can actually comprehend what these morons are saying.
No wonder then, that people are turning to expensive resorts and foreign holidays to escape from this menace, which seems to be growing by the day and ruining the popular tourist destinations in India.
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