You will feel it while you’re lounging on a houseboat in Kerala’s backwaters, or soaking up the quiet in Dharamshala way up north, or even as you contemplate the marble perfection of the Taj Mahal. The colour and crowds and cacophony and chaos that is so typically Indian. India has for centuries together exerted a magnetic pull over people across the world, who first visited the country as explorers, then traders, rulers, spirituality seekers and finally, tourists.

The curiosity over the great India story has only increased with the passage of time. But whatever may be the reasons for visiting this beacon of the exotic east, one thing has been common to all who have stepped foot within the boundary of this old civilisation; they have all been affected by it.

India is a nation of extremes and everything in between – extreme wealth, extreme poverty, freezing landscapes, sun-scorched deserts, spiritual solace, pulsating nightlife, majestic monuments, swanky sky-scrapers, deep blue seas, magisterial peaks…. Its diversity is an in-your-face, unique thing, luring visitors to experience its kaleidoscopic variety.

India is a melting pot of cultures, languages, religions, ethnicities and tribes that make up its unique flavour, palatable to tourists from across the world. Tourists are offered a veritable carte blanche of places to see with attractions that cater to diverse tastes, from Goa’s beaches, Rajasthan’s deserts to ‘God’s Own Country’ Kerala, wildlife sanctuaries tucked away amidst thick green foliage, or the spirituality that pervades its pilgrim centres and holy cities. A landscape that extends from the coast to the reaches of the world’s tallest mountain, the Himalayas, India’s peninsula is rich in natural wealth and its old civilisation a hotbed of monuments that vie for attention. The iconic Taj Mahal, the Ajanta and Ellora Caves, Qutub Minar, Hawa Mahal, Khajuraho Temples… the list is endless.

No mention of India can be complete without a mention of its throbbing megalopolis, Mumbai, home to the latest toast of the world, the Indian film industry, fondly christened – rather prosaically – Bollywood.

Its wealth of people, more than a billion at last count, adds its own dimension to the tourist experience. The people are hospitable, friendly and gracious hosts, always welcoming and quick to offer a helping hand. Tourists should nevertheless keep a lookout for those looking to make a pretty penny from a visitor’s lack of knowledge of the place. However, the people do account for a visitor’s positive perspective of the country.

There is a lot to see and to do in a country that defies easy definition. And though it wears its modernity and available conveniences as a proud statement, it is not a country easily understood. You can’t just visit India, create a happy holiday memory to be pulled up as a flashback to a worthy travel story. It’s an experience that stays with you long after the plane takes off Indian soil.

Topography

Bound by the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Arabian Sea to the west and the Indian Ocean to the south, India is cut off – quite literally – from the rest of Asia by the towering Himalayan range towards the north. India is the home of the holy River Ganges and a wide expanse of the Himalayan foothills. East India begins with the states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, and also contains an area known as the eastern triangle, which is entirely self-contained. Beyond this is Bangladesh, culminating in the Naga Hills along the Burmese border.

India shares its north-western border with Afghanistan and Pakistan while Nepal can be found on the north.The Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Straits separate India from Sri Lanka. The Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Bay of Bengal and Lakshwadeep in the Arabian sea are parts of the territory of India. The Lakshadweep archipelago is formed on a coral deposit off the Kerala coast.

For the most part a self-contained land mass, this peninsula features almost every kind of landscape imaginable.

The Indus-Ganga-Brahmaputra rivers form the great Indian plain, which extends, from north to south, for a good 2,000 miles (3,200 km). Beginning from the north, the region features a mountainous landscape as well as a dense cover of forest.
The northwest is characterised by arid desert land, with the Thar Desert running across a significant portion of the northwest and creating a natural boundary with its western neighbour, Pakistan.

As you move southwards, the region loses its rugged appearance, widening into fertile plains in the west, while the Ganges River Valley defines the east.

The thick central chunk of the country has some pristine beaches marching along the lush, heavily forested west coast. Here, the Western Ghats that stretch right down to the southern peninsular tip, further separate the coast from the Vindya mountain range and the arid Deccan plateau further inland. Both the eastern and western coastal plains are distinct from each other. The west is characterised by alluvial plains with hilly terrains at intervals. The east has a vast plain with deltas created by the rivers flowing here.

At its southernmost tip lies the Deccan in the north and ends with Cape Comorin. It is here in the south that ‘God’s Own Country’ beacons to leisure seekers from around the globe, Kerala. The southeast coast lies in the shadows of the Eastern Ghats.

Climate

India is characterised by three basic seasons – summer, monsoon and winter, but given the vast and varied topography and the barrier of the Himalayas, each region has distinct climes. Largely, however, the country falls under the category of tropical climatic conditions. The monsoon season hits the western slopes of the Western Ghats, the northeastern region and the Himalayan region very hard, with these areas recording an average of 2,000 mm of rain every year. The eastern part right up to the north receives an average of 1,000-2,000 mm of rainfall annually. The monsoon season is between June and September and this is the time when there is a possibility of flooding is high. Winter hits the subcontinent between December and February, when the north gets its fair share of snowfall and chilly weather. Winter in the central region and the south however, is pleasant and not chilly due to the tempering effect of the water bodies. The summer season runs from March to June and October to late November, when the weather starts cooling off. It gets extremely hot and humid near the coast and dry and hot in the interiors of the country. The hot wind known as the ‘loo’ is a marked feature of summer in the north. However, the extreme north near the Himalayas is protected from the harsher heat of summer.

History of India

The history of this country dates as far back into the past as time itself…or so it may seem. India has been around since 2500 BC, when the Indus Valley Civilisation was at its peak of development. People had developed an urban culture based on commerce and sustained by agricultural trade. This civilisation declined around 1500 BC. During the second millennium BC, pastoral tribes known as the Aryans migrated from the northwest into the subcontinent and settled in the middle of the Ganges River valley. When they settled into the subcontinent, they pushed the original inhabitants, the Dravidians, to the south.

Ancient and medieval India was made up of myriad kingdoms with fluctuating boundaries. In the fourth and fifth centuries AD, the Gupta dynasty ruled the north. This was considered India’s most glorious age. Known as India’s Golden Age, Hindu culture and political administration reached new heights.

By the time the Gupta dynasty was in decline, India had begun attracting foreign invaders in droves. It was through these invasions that Islam spread across the subcontinent. In the 10th and 11th centuries, Turks and Afghans invaded India and established sultanates in Delhi. They were followed by descendents of Ghengis Khan who in the early 16th century, swept across the Khyber Pass and established the Mughal Dynasty, which lasted for 200 years. While most of these activities were restricted to the northern part of the subcontinent, the southern stretch was also witnessing change. From the 11th to the 15th centuries, southern India was dominated by Hindu Chola and Vijayanagar Dynasties. During this time, the two systems – the prevailing Hindu and Muslim – mingled, leaving lasting cultural influences on each other.

The Mughals had successfully entrenched themselves into the subcontinent, becoming an inextricable part of India, when the first British outpost in South Asia was established in 1619 at Surat on the northwestern coast. Towards the end of the century, the East India Company opened permanent trading stations at Madras (present Chennai), Bombay (present Mumbai) and Calcutta (present Kolkata).

Gradually, the British managed to extend their influence to other parts of the region and by the 1850s, they had established dominion over most of the subcontinent including present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh. An 1857 rebellion by soldiers in the north led to the British Parliament transferring power over the country from the East India company to the British Crown.

In the late 1800s, the first steps were taken towards self-governance in British India with the appointment of Indian councillors to advise the British viceroy and the establishment of provincial councils with Indian members; the British subsequently widened participation in legislative councils. Beginning in 1920, a certain unassuming young man came to India with unheard of theories – Equality and Freedom through non-violence. He changed the face of the Indian freedom movement. The Father of the Nation and global icon, Mohandas K Gandhi transformed the Indian National Congress political party into a mass movement to campaign against British colonial rule. The party used both parliamentary and nonviolent resistance and non-cooperation to achieve independence.

On August 15, 1947, India finally achieved independence with Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister. The fallout of this was a deep-seated mistrust between the Hindus and Muslims that led to Pakistan being carved out of a united India, creating East and West Pakistan, where there were Muslim majorities. India became a republic  on January 26, 1950.

After independence, the Congress Party, the party of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, ruled India under the influence first of Nehru and then his daughter and grandson, with the exception of two brief periods in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Government of India

India is a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic with a parliamentary system of government. The Republic is governed by the Constitution of India which was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949 and came into effect on January 26, 1950. This day is celebrated as the Republic Day.
The Parliamentary form of government is federal in structure with certain unitary features. The constitutional head of the Executive of the Union is the President. As per Article 79 of the Constitution of India, the council of the Parliament of the Union consists of the President and two Houses known as the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the People (Lok Sabha). The Prime Minister is the head of the nation with a Council of Ministers under him. The President is more of a titular head who exercises his/her functions in accordance to the advice of the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers. The real executive power is thus vested in the Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as its head.

The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the House of the People (Lok Sabha). Every state has a Legislative Assembly and some also have an Upper House, called the State Legislative Council. There is a Governor for each state who is appointed by the President and the executive power of that particular state is vested in him. The Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister as its head advises the Governor in the discharge of the executive functions. The Council of the Ministers of a state is collectively responsible to the Legislative Assembly of the State.

The Constitution distributes legislative powers between Parliament and State legislatures as per the lists of entries in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution. The residuary powers vest in the Parliament. The centrally administered territories are called Union Territories.

People of India

It is difficult to accurately enumerate the various ethnicities that people the vast peninsular country. The tales of invasions and settlers from across the world are as varied as the history of this old civilisation and the citizens of India are descendents of several races who travelled eastwards to this nation from around the world.

Diverse cultural and ethnic groups speaking equally varied languages inhabit the length and breadth of India. A nation known for celebrating its diversity, this country of over a billion people is home to Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Buddhists and people belonging to various tribes and faiths.

As varied as the backgrounds are of the people, there is one thing that binds them all and makes them uniquely Indian – their hospitality towards guests.

Food

Indian food has not escaped the influences of its chequered past. A predominantly vegetarian civilisation, which worships the cow, non-vegetarianism became a staple under the influence of foreign settlers. The food eaten today is a blend of all these influences, but a common ingredient running through Indian food is the spice factor. Across the board, Indian food tends to be spicy.

Starting from the north, the Central Asian influences are apparent especially in the Kashmiri food. Rice is the main staple around which a meal is prepared. However, other northern states like Punjab, Uttar Pradesh have a high consumption of the traditional roti or chapati (circular bread made from whole wheat or refined wheat flour). The food here also reflects the Mughal influence with its sumptuous biryanis and kebabs.

Travel down in a westerly direction into the heart of the desert of India, and the food changes. The food here is heavy on dals (curries made from lentils and pulses) and pickles to compensate for the lack of availability of fresh vegetables. Along the western coast, you can taste some delicious local seafood, something that is also common in Eastern India, where fish and rice are staples. Down south as well, in states like Kerala and Chennai, rice and fish dominate the menu.

But if you are a conservative eater, then continental favourites like pizzas and pastas are available in many of the restaurants in the big cities.

However, a journey to India would be patently incomplete without partaking of the streetside food culture. If your stomach can take it, it’s well worth the finger-licking experience. Here is where you get a true taste of India – in the dhabas (roadside eateries frequented by all-night travellers) of north India or the food stalls lining every street in every state.

Drink

Alocohol is a socially acceptable habit here, and India has its own home-grown vineyards and breweries and alcohol is widely consumed. International labels in a variety of drinks are also commonly available. There are, however, teetotalling states like Gujarat.

Indian culture is a blend of all the influences and experiences that the country has witnessed over its long and chequered existence.

All forms of art, architecture, language, religions, cuisine and festivals have had their genesis in the diverse cultural influences that is the pot pourri known as India. Each region has its own specific culture. All the different races who settled in the subcontinent brought their own culture which blended with other cultures and traditions to create something uniquely individual.

Each village, city, state, region has its very own distinctive culture that will not be replicated in another region of the nation. Foreign tourists who are enamoured by the vibrant, vital colours that are so prominent here can be assured of a new experience in every place they visit. Just as the desert landscape of Rajasthan has its very own treasures worth exploring, so does the region under the looming shadows of the snow-capped Himalayas or the meandering coastline of the south.

Considering we’re talking about a large slice of the subcontinent holding one-sixth of the world’s population, getting to India should pose no difficulties. You can fly into the country on any international airline. India’s government-run international airline is Air India. Other private airlines also ply internationally. International airports are situated in the major metros, New Delhi, the country’s capital, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

Visitors from neighbouring nations can opt for a road trip into India if they are so inclined.

Once in India, travelling can be done by road, air or rail. While the public transport in major metros is good, particularly in Mumbai, it is recommended that you check with a trusty local on how best to get around. Train or bus journeys can be a bit frustrating as the duration of journeys across regions can be time-consuming.

You could be better off hiring a car for inter-city travel and flying if you want to visit different regions. If you want to rough it out, hoofing it on foot is recommended only if you have a trustworthy guide and have gathered comprehensive information about the place you wish to visit. Female travellers should, as far as possible, not travel alone for long stretches, especially at night-time or in certain parts of the country.

The best time for tourists to visit India is the winter season, when the weather is pleasantly cool in most parts and chilly in the northern reaches of the country. Sometime between October to February is ideal for tourists, when the last waves of the October heat are on the wane. During this period, the usually wet northeastern region also dries off for the duration and the coastal areas in southern India lose their humidity and become cooler. It is therefore a good time to visit the beaches for those wanting to relax and lounge near the waters. Moreover, it is also the time when India is at her brightest and most colourful, with religious festivals and celebrations segueing into one another – Dusherra, Diwali, Christmas….

If you make the trip during the summer months – extending from March to June – come prepared for the humidity (near the coastal areas) and blazing heat (in the interiors). The best option for a summer holiday in India is to retreat to the hilly north, maybe even venture forth for a trek into the Himalayas. June to September is the monsoon season and unless you can brave the torrential rains and the threat of flooding and infection-carrying monsoon virals, it is best avoided!

Visas

All foreign tourists to India need to carry visas and passports. The different categories of visas include a 15-day visa, a six-month tourist visa and visas with either a single entry point or multiple-entry points. Only a six-month visa is extendable. Be sure to check that at the time of visiting the country, you visa is valid from the date of entry or the date of issue.

Money

Travellers in and out of the country are not allowed to carry the Indian rupee. US dollars, pounds, Thomas Cook and American Express travellers’ cheques will work in major cities. It is always a good option to have ready cash as well.

Travellers staying in India for more than four months will be required to keep their encashment certificate in order to be eligible for income tax clearance.

Credit cards

All international credit cards are accepted in India.

Health

Before taking a trip to the sub-continent, make sure you are completely immunised and have taken all the necessary vaccines.

Cholera, dengue fever, dysentery, hepatitis, malaria, meningitis (trekking areas only) and typhoid are quite commonly contracted by tourists, so be sure to take the medication to ensure this does not happen.
Many of India’s larger cities are highly polluted – travellers with respiratory ailments may wish to take precautionary measures.

If you do forget to carry any medicines, most common medication like aspirins and such, is available over the counter in medical stores and pharmacies. If you have certain physician-recommended medicines, carry them along, or carry a prescription.

If you do contract an illness when in India, you have no cause for concern as the doctors are highly competent. Just make sure you ask the receptionist at your hotel or a trustworthy person about the doctor to visit.

As added precautions, watch what and where you eat and drink. Stick to bottled water and avoid streetside food if you think you have an uncertain stomach.

Security

As a basic precaution, when you arrive in the country, make sure you visit your nation’s consulate or embassy and register your stay with them.

Travelling in India is on the whole safe but the extreme crowds and a completely alien culture can be overwhelming. It’s best to read up as much as you can about the region or city that you are visiting and ask a reliable guide any questions that you may have. Do not talk or encourage communication with strangers who approach you on streets asking to be your guides.

Though generally safe for women, it is advised that women travellers exercise caution when on a visit to India. Stay away from lonely spots and night-time travel. Indian men generally treat women with respect and don’t bother them, but it’s best to maintain vigilance and avoid places that look isolated. Women may be the object of some unwanted stares. This is largely just curiosity but it’s best to be alert.

Beware of street crime and don’t move around wearing any valuables. Purse snatchers and pickpockets are quite common, so safeguard your important papers and documents at all times. Be sure to not leave your luggage unattended, especially if you take a public transport.

Do not swim in open seas especially during the monsoon season (June-September). There is a strong undertow that can prove to be fatal to even the strongest of swimmers.

As is a common occurrence across the world, terrorism has arrived on Indian shores in a very real and immediate way. Make sure you garner complete knowledge about the place you visit; there are restricted regions in the country that are a security threat.

There is a lot for kids to see and do in India and it makes for an ideal family destination. Be sure to be well prepared and carry all the essentials that your child may need. Do a thorough medical check up and ensure that your child has taken the requisite vaccines. The medical precautions are mostly just that – precautions. But it is better to be safe than sorry.

The weather in a tropical place like India can also pose a challenge, particularly if you come from cooler countries. Be sure you stay out of the afternoon sun, keep your kid hydrated constantly (the freely available coconut water found in India is a good option – it’s safe and hygienic) and lather your child with sun screen.

The pollution levels in the country are also on the higher side, so ensure that your child does not touch things found lying around. Drink bottled water, carry a mosquito repellant, wear lightweight cotton clothes (unless you’re visiting the north in the dead of winter)  and make sure your child is within sight of you at all times.

A very important thing to remember about India is its traffic and road rules – or lack thereof. Be careful if you’re walking along a crowded road. The signals, zebra crossings and right of way are held in mild contempt by car owners, so be careful while walking on the roads. Stick to pavements as far as possible and cross only when the light turns red. Indians, perhaps believing they are born with a dash-across-the-road gene that protects them from mishap – pedestrians in India indulge in jaywalking with absolute impunity, but this may not be an example worth emulating. Another important point to consider is the food. Stay away from street food and shady-looking restaurants.

A minor annoyance you may face is the staring that you may have to endure. It’s best to just ignore this.

If you keep these things in mind, take some minimum precautions and stay alert, travelling with your children to India should be a vacation!

Tips are expected in most establishments, big or small. Apart from hotels and restaurants, even guides or porters or any local rendering a service would expect a tip or what is locally known as baksheesh. In the bigger restaurants and hotels, the international proportions of tipping would be acceptable but for the smaller places or for service rendered, use your discretion.

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