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India - A Sensory Delite!
Soheli Kar, Instructional Designer, The Business Workshop

For a Westerner, when he visits India, three P's certainly arrest his attention - population, pollution and poverty. But is this the only impression that India has on the minds of the foreigners? Most certainly, not! In truth it can be a sensory delight rather than an overload.

For a visitor to India, this is a country shrouded in mystery - spiritualism, tradition and culture are associated with every Indian. It is a fact that generally a foreigner may experience inconvenience in terms of living conditions, but the culture, history and traditions of India hold a lot of attraction.

India is country of diversity. Diversity in people, language, culture, geography as as well as the experiences that it offers. The vast population has a myriad of cultural extravaganza that can be a delight to witness. Also some important lessons other cultures can learn are the ability of this vast population to live with and accept differences in opinion, lifestyles and traditions. The beauty of this continent lies in the fact that despite diverse differences there is a common thread of basic values binding them together.

Due to multiple invasions and foreign rulers, many cultures have mingled with the Indian culture. Despite being invaders, many of them settled in India adding their own distinct colours and flavours to the ancient Indian culture. This is also another reason for the Indian ability to accept and live with such diversity.

India is a country where most of the religions of the world are practiced and temples, mosques and other praying places are the most common sights. Indians are considered very spiritual and many social norms are directly derived from the religions that are practiced here. Though certain social ills also develop due to the blind following of religious habits, yet, Indians are characteristically tolerant.

For an Indian, tradition is a part of his/her identity. In fact he needs continuity of this tradition to feel a sense of well being. Family and the community is needed to survive and live well in India. This is accompanied with the emergence of the traditional Indian who supports and furthers old traditions. The Indian deference and respect of authority in fact stems from this age-old need.

In fact the festivals that the Indian community celebrates offers the visitor experiences that are a sensory delite! Therefore much as the three P's will bother the foreigner this more than balances the negatives they will have to cope with when visiting India.

India is certainly a country which holds within itself an immense wealth of culture and spiritualism which is enough to attract Westerners to visit the country and to take back precious knowledge, learning and peace. Using co existence to survive adversity and yet maintaining the joy for celebrations, is a valuable lesson learned from this culture.

Graphic done by Sophiya