A bad joke

There's a difference between a tourist and a traveller. And Indians (in my experience) only make terrible tourists. Not North Indians. Not South Indians. Just Indians. North Indians usually get the blame for being uncouth (which they generally are) away from home, South Indians aren't always exceptionally great either. The first thing that strikes you about our countrymen is how indifferent we are towards our country, let alone abroad. Compare that attitude with a foreigner who has travelled farther to visit our land. That firang would show more respect and affection towards what's geographically ours. We, on the other hand, will display our endearment by littering beautiful places. Don't we, as a people, enjjjoooooy spreading love in the form of plastic? We don't even spare the hills. The height of commitment—quite literally! How difficult can it be to let a place stay the way it was before you entered the scene? Seriously. I noticed how narrow streets and their narrower gutters in Dharamshala are filled with polythenes of varying sizes. Yes, one can point out that not all of the mess could be created by Indians alone, some blame should fall on the Tibetans. Agreed. But, going by my observation, it's difficult to share the blame. I noticed how these (technically homeless) people in exile love their Little Lhasa. Their simplicity is too apparent to be overlooked and they are too calm a species. The finest example could be noticed in the manner they behave on the road. Indians, despite knowing very well that they don't really have the knack to maneuver their vehicles on topsy-curvy bends, flock their four-wheelers up the hills. And in the process, end up creating massive traffic jam. The worst part was to witness an Indian driver taking a turn at the speed of 1km/hr and honking while he's at it. I mean, what the fuck is wrong with us? Why can't we just let the expert Tibetans and Pahadis drive and earn their livelihoods (not to forget, curb air pollution) instead of creating a public joke of ourselves? And speaking of honking, if there is a traffic jam, you can be dead sure that the local drivers won't touch their horn while the Indians will go ballistic with their impatience. It's high time we Indians stopped putting the loud in McLeodganj.