Traveling through India...

This is another one in my speeches for Toastmasters... Through this speech, I aimed to inspire people who may not be aware of all the diverse things that our country has to offer...

How many of you have been to India? Tonight is special because it is a result of me feeling nostalgic about my country and not because I’m trying to promote tourism… we have enough people as it is. Just kidding, I do hope I’m able to inspire some of you to visit India!

Good evening toastmasters and welcome guests, tonight I will traveling through my country, India and taking you all along on the ride with me. Fasten your seat-belts or don’t, actually nobody cares in India.

Now because I am speaking to a quite a lot of non-Indians, I thought this one would be fun to look at. This is supposed to be a map of how India is seen by others around the world. Where do most westerners flock to? You see that tiny little area – that’s the designated vacation spot Goa. And those are the mountain regions… the places people think we go to do Yoga. I like how Gujarat is pointed out as a dry state, it’s so much more though. It’s only funny when we make fun of our country, not others!

Now let’s just forget about how India is perceived and take a look at some of the things you might see if you visit. Beautiful architecture dating back centuries, rich culture and colorful festivals, imposing mountains to gorgeous oceans and of course, delicious food. And I’m grateful that I’ve had the chance to experience most of these things.

My journey started in the eastern part of India, in the city of Calcutta in West Bengal. Calcutta is a city caught in a time-warp. You are standing in a flashy mall, you walk a few steps and suddenly you are in these old, narrow lanes and palatial houses still standing proudly. There are three things people of Calcutta love – fresh Fish every day, an hour of political debate while eating that fish followed by an afternoon nap after eating. Hmmm… rich food and sleep everyday… That explains a lot!

After completing school, I moved to Sikkim, a small mountain state north of Bengal. My campus was surrounded by mountains on one side and a river on the other (you can see it up there) and some of the best years of my life were spent there. We used to take an overnight train from Sikkim to Calcutta and we would often make unplanned trips without buying tickets and hide in the toilets when someone came to check our tickets (yes we can do that, we are quite corrupt).

Then in 2009, at the age of 22, I moved all the way to the south of India to the city of Hyderabad. At first, I hated it. I didn’t understand the language they spoke, I didn’t enjoy the kind of food they ate and every year I would declare… “This is the year I go back to Calcutta”. Well that never happened and five years went by. I discovered the delicious Hyderabadi biriyani and I learned a few words to at least converse with the cleaning lady (she was the most important person in my life). Last week I came to know that most of those words were wrong so I wonder what I had been telling her.

The south of India is also where most of the IT software companies have their offices – especially the city of Bangalore is known as the IT city. It is said that if you throw a stone in Bangalore, 9 out of 10 times it will hit an IT engineer (don’t do it, there are too many of us). 

While working in Hyderabad, I had a chance to visit some places in the West of India. Among them, Mumbai is very memorable for me. It’s said that Indians are crazy about two things – Cricket and Movies. I once tried to run away from home because I wanted to meet an actor who was visiting my city. As it turns out I was not very good at planning and was caught before I reached the bus stop. That is why Mumbai is special because it is where the Hindi film industry (or Bollywood) is located. I actually spent a few hours standing outside an actor’s house hoping he would come out, until the security guard made me leave. Well, I’ll be back!

For now, we move north towards the capital. If Calcutta is where I was born, Delhi is what I am married into because my husband, Ashish is born and brought up here. The specialty of people from Delhi is that they almost completely speak in obscenities. The closer you are, the more you’ll hear. When I first became friends with people from Delhi, I was scared to talk to them, it was all *beep* *beep* *beep*. Later I realized it was because they thought we were friends.  

North of India also has some of the most gorgeous mountains you would ever see, the Himalayan range. Even if we’re not doing yoga there, these are places that bring you close to nature. There is also the desert state of Rajasthan which is the next place in India I want to visit.

If you’re still debating whether to visit India or not, here are some fun facts for you. In spite of its problems, what I love about my country is the diversity in cultures, the rich heritage that we have and the fact that India has the power to stay in your heart forever.

I hope that some of you have been inspired to plan a trip to India because we believe ‘Atithi devo bhava’ … ‘a guest is equal to God’.