I hate disclaimers... ...but I feel compelled to write something more about India, so I'm writing this in March of 1996, exactly four years after our short week there. I remember having a conversation with someone in New Zealand. I was trying to explain that just because you've visited New York City for a week doesn't mean you've seen the United States. It's just not representative. For that matter, there's no one city that is. You have to spend a lot of time there, getting to know all the different aspects of the people and the culture. And that's especially true if in that one week, you had a lot of negative experiences. Some day I'll go back to India, and I'll spend a couple of months getting to know all of the beautiful things about it. Many readers have suggested particular parts of India that shouldn't be missed, and I'll make those first on my list. When I go back and read my journal entry for India, I see it as an extremely short and uninformed view of a very large and varied country. It is not a statement of what India is about, and certainly not what its people are about. It is not a guide book, or a recommendation not to visit the country. It is an unedited, very personal journal entry written after a week of extreme frustration, and after two and a half months in Asia. Please take it as such, and if you disagree with it, feel free to suggest your own wonderful parts of India that shouldn't be missed. I'll be happy to include them on the comments pages. Thanks, |