When traveling, visitors watch the people of the land being visited; those host people notice those who are visiting.

Westerners have had a growing fascination with India. The list is endless.

During my lifetime, the Beatles resided in Rishikesh.

While I didn’t take his course, my DePauw advisor began to offer his first class on Hinduism and Buddhism in late 1960’s and, as I mentioned in a previous blog, my roommate Einar enrolled for a year at Benaras Hindu University. On and on and on.

There are so many ways in which we who are travelers to India are viewed. In India, we are viewed as walking billfolds, walking banks. On the last day in Mumbai, I walked to the Gateway of India. One young girl grabbed my arm and refused to let go. She had a death grip on my arm! After prying her arm off of my arm, I felt her grabbing my other arm. All I could do was to keep walking. After fifty feet, with others simply staring at us, she removed her arm. A relief! Shortly later, while looking at the Gateway, I am approached by a series of people. “Want your ears cleaned?” “Want to change money?” “Want a woman? Want a young girl? A young boy?” The harshness of life was so apparent. This Western traveler representing wealth a target.

There are so many ways in which we who are travelers to India view India.