It is a well-known fact around the world that our country, India is the second largest populated country in the entire world. People living here are also very well aware of the conditions of socially backward section. Many of us cross a number of beggars everyday and notice that most of them are kids. We know that the reason our country is lagging behind is because of the lack of education or “Illiteracy” among the human resource. According to the survey conducted in the year of 2014, China is the most populated country in the world but that’s hasn’t stopped China from climbing the stairs of development as the country has been proved to be the number one in utilizing its human resource (population). The debate doesn’t end only when the problem of a given situation is found but it ends at that point where a proper solution is found for the problem. Same is the case in our country. The youth that is the hope for a better future is being inclined towards the responsibility of earning a living while it should be inclined towards “essential and ideal learning“. There’re people who are working for the betterment of the society and the economy but unless they get your support, they’ll never be able to achieve their target. Varanasi is known to millions as the religious, cultural and traditional hub of India. Being one of the most ancient oldest cities in the world, it is also blindingly colorful and unrelentingly chaotic. People from all around the country come here to wash away a lifetime of sins in the sacred water of Varanasi. But this source of purity has now become an impure river and one of the most polluted rivers in the country. The river took the sins of all the humans but no soul bothered to give a little attention to the one washing away all our impurities. When you’ll visit Varanasi, besides the polluted river which has now been turned into a dark color and is filled with impure and non-biodegradable materials, your eyes will easily catch the children working near the river bank. Children engaging in different trades, earning money and wasting their minds and childhood while trying to lessen the burden and responsibilities of their parents. This is the time when they should be learning and gaining knowledge however they are less inclined towards the essential learning that they require. When the people of NGO Guria saw these children working, they decided to help them and act. To help these children and our society, the NGO Guria under the leadership of Ajeet Singh, started a noble and the kind of innovation that very few of us would have thought about i.e. ‘boat school’. This Varanasi boat school is not some ordinary school in which students will be taught for hours and given homework but it’s a school or a place that would offer these children a peaceful and enhanced learning environment. The children can spend two hours in the boat school after their school is over and in that time, they’d have all the time to themselves to learn, study and gain knowledge in a peaceful atmosphere. There will be no distraction and the solely motive of this school is to provide the children what they have been deprived of i.e. a place to learn in peace with a free and relaxed mind. Despite this, the boat has a lot more potential of helping and providing the children with the kind of various facilities that they have been deprived of. However what it lacks is the means to grow. Future enhancements can be made but what is required is the “magical transformation.” The people of NGO Guria need financial help to enhance the learning experience of our only “hope” for a better future by providing them the necessary books, stationary, CDs, toys, furniture and other facilities. If this solution is successfully affected in the small town of Banaras, then similar efforts can be replicated across the country ensuring a far better future for India and for those children who never got to go to the school or own a uniform. This idea can help those who are socially deprived of the basic necessities and a means to grow. So, here comes our role in the development of our country and in taking a part in the journey of doing right and supporting such innovative ideas to ensure these children a better future. You can help the NGO and these children by visiting the links given below and by contributing a bit to this idea. www.doright.in Think Right! Do Right! #ScholarShip
People don’t usually go on any trips without their kids. Because they believe that if they are going out to some place to enjoy, their kids should too. I mean even they are humans and they need to travel, explore and get out. Visiting an entirely new place or some place they have only heard of and have never been to, meeting new people, learn new things and meet new kids. It gives them some time to away from their “daily boring routine” and have fun.
So, here are some things that show why parents love to travel with their kids as a family and not alone:
Studies show both kinds of trips (family trips and couple trips) are beneficial for families in the long run. It keeps the family together and gives them some time to reunite, strengthen their bond and create memories.
Alright everybody loves some time for themselves but if you have a great family, you wouldn’t want to travel alone.
Bring called “mom” or “dad”, paying for some candies for their kids, seeing how their child gets excited on seeing new birds, places, animals or riding on a horse and all these sweet things their kids do give them a great feeling. After all, it feels nice to be someone’s boss being their best friend.
Because leaving their kids behind IS tough:
Obviously nobody wants to be worried about their kids while they want to go on some journey. Parents know about their kids the most and knowing the fact that they are the only ones who can keep their children safest, leaving the kids at someone else’s place just really don’t seem like an option.
Who wants to be left alone in their hotel room or have dinner on some restaurant without having their kids laugh about some silly stuff or cracking a joke or better, taking selfies. Parents enjoy the company of their kids. They like to communicate with them, get to know about their kids’ life, his/her school/college life, what has been going in their kids life. They do make effort to get closer to them and their kids appreciate it too. After all the dinner conversations are a way of opening up with your kids and sharing some great stories.
“According to a March Harris poll of 2,500 adults and 1,200 kids, 62 percent of adults said they remember childhood trips more clearly than school events or birthdays.”
Every parent is well aware of the fact that after a certain age, their children will not stay with them. A time will come when they will grow up and have a life of their own and then, there will not be enough time to spend together as a “family”.
That’s why parents try their best to give their child a childhood that he/she will remember, some memories to live with and some to cherish for the rest of their lives. Their child’s happiness is what matters to them the most.
Every now and then we pick up some old photograph album and see a picture of us as a kid, we very easily find some random picture of us taken with our siblings or mom and nobody says they don’t love it because we all do; we all love the way we used to look or see how tiny we were when we came into this world. How much we loved being around our mom/dad and how excited we used to get when offered a candy. Photographs are great remembrance of past. And even when the people in them change, the past doesn’t.
Sometimes a picture speaks louder than words and childhood pics do bring people and families together.
It has been more than five years of our relationship and now, after spending such a long time together, it was time to say good bye. He was leaving me. I was leaving him. We were leaving each other. I was letting him go. It was our fifth anniversary. It was hurting to see the two of us getting separated but even more hurting was the fact that I let it happen. I saw our relationship fall apart, love become dull and passion fade away and I tried to pull it together, I tried to keep us strong and I tried but maybe I did not try hard enough. Perhaps my efforts were not enough or perhaps I gave up too early. There was love, there was attachment but something was missing. He couldn’t understand what but he knew that our relationship wasn’t the way it used to be.
Earlier he used to bring me flowers when he came home from work and used to send me chocolates from all over the world when he used to go for his office trips. And later, as the flowers and chocolates stopped coming, the trips got postponed, the birthday surprise parties stopped, everything came to a halt. We got busy and as they say “things fall apart”. Well, things did fall apart.
Fifth anniversary and we aren’t with each other. Today was the day to sign our divorce papers. Today we were going to see each other after six months. Six months is a long time to decide whether you want to stay with a person or not. Six months, is enough. But why was I still confused? Is it really happening? Well, he must have decided something, right? Do I really need to do this? Was I doing something wrong? Are we really leaving each other? Why couldn’t it work out? We had known each other since childhood. Then, why? Was it my fault or his? We weren’t even given enough time to talk, to converse. He didn’t know & he still doesn’t know because I couldn’t tell him what I had been going through this entire time. How I felt having to sit at home all by myself; having dinner alone, celebrating my promotion alone? I wasn’t alone but yes, I was lonely.
“What if, but, however…” so many unanswered questions were crossing my mind on my way to the court.
“Ma’am, we are here!” said the driver.
I stepped out. I entered and saw Sameer sitting there. He looked so…I can’t describe in words. He saw me as I entered, our eyes crossed, his eyes as black as the darkest night, looked at me. Strangely, I felt nice. I thought whether I should pass a smile or not? But I couldn’t, no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t. So, I didn’t. The divorce papers were lying in front of me as we sat with our lawyers. I looked at them and noticed that they weren’t signed. He hadn’t signed them. I wondered why? I was curious to know the reason.
I was late and I was sure he would have been asked to sign them. This grew my curiosity. He was whispering something to his lawyer. He stood up, I stood up. I couldn’t understand what was happening but I desperately needed to know. Seeing those papers unsigned troubled me so much that I went outside. I asked for a break. I went outside because I needed fresh air and he followed me. Then, I stopped.
“What happened?” He asked me.
“I needed some fresh air. It was claustrophobic in there. I couldn’t…” I stopped.
“Uh….”
“Why are those paper not signed? Why didn’t you sign them, Sameer?”
“Why are we doing this, Anika? What went wrong? Please tell me. We don’t need to do this, honey.” he begged.
“Answer my question. Why are you hesitating now when you didn’t hesitate when you were leaving me?” I asked.
My voice was shaking and my eyes, filled with tears. Tears I did not want to drop out of my eyes. I looked away because I didn’t want him to know that I was crying. “I am not weak”, I said to myself. “I can do this.”
He knew this look. He noticed my nose turn pink and as soon as he realized that I was crying, he couldn’t stop himself but wipe those tears. He came closer, held me tight.
“Anika?” His voice was shaky too.
He touched my cheeks and wipes those tears with his warm hand and kissed me on my forehead.
I felt his hands grabbing me tight as if he didn’t want me to leave. He touched me after so long.
“This is what was missing.” I said. “A touch!”
Sameer looked at me and felt guilty for staying away from me for these six months and even during our
This was the closest we have been in the past one year. This touch brought us even closer and we decided not to leave each other because even when things fall apart, people stick together.
I have three siblings, two younger brothers and an elder sister. When people hear about the size of our family (which now has increased from six to seven after the arrival of my new labrador-Bruno), they look amazed. It’s big, i know. But now that we are total four, i wonder what it would have been like if we were just two or less. My younger brother, Aditya (Addy) is the sweetheart of our family since he is the smallest. He’s seven and a half years younger than me ans he is the only one who makes our family look more alive. He’s a very jolly kid, always cracking jokes and behaves like an adult himself at times.
This incident took place long time ago when Addy was not even one year old. He was ill, had high fever. We three were very young then. It was 7 o’clock in the evening and my father had gone out to the gas station. All of us were in the hall and my mom was trying to make Addy drink his syrup. It was a cold syrup, i suppose. But he wasn’t ready to drink it. And then, suddenly he started to act in a strange way. I could see he was struggling. Real panicked stroked us all when he fainted after a minute when my brother had went to the kitchen to bring him some water. It all happened in such a short time that we couldn’t figure what had happened. My mom begin to shout- “Call your father! Call your father now”. We called him but he wasn’t picking up his phone (because he was driving). And Addy’s face looked pale. He was lying there in my mom’s arms. We had not seen him so lifeless ever before. And then, dad arrived. *He hadn’t gone to the gas station because when he went to the ATM, his credit card wasn’t working so he had decided to head home as there was still some gas left in the car tank.* As he entered, he looked at Addy, saw my mom’s face and before mom could utter any words out of her mouth, dad held Addy, took his car keys out of his pocket and clicked on the “Unlock” button. He said to my elder sister- “Lock the door and stay with your brother and sister.” And they rushed to the hospital.
It had been three hours and we hadn’t received a call from them. I was crying and so was my brother. After all we were kids and we were worried as hell about our younger brother who had just come into this world and before even turning one, was admitted in the hospital.
We were waiting for dad’s call and then the phone rang. It was dad. He had called to inform us that Addy was alright and that he had passed out because he wasn’t getting any oxygen. *Either it was the syrup or perhaps the water that mom had made him drink but he didn’t.* Doctor had said that had my father not arrived at the hospital on time, we might have lost Addy.
The news was shocking itself and it made us all wonder, wonder what if dad had answered our call and talked to us for 2 minutes? What if he had gone to the gas station? What if there was no gas left in the car tank?
Only thinking about these things, i get goosebumps because there’s nothing more shattering than to loose a member of your family, your blood brother, sister or a parent.
He makes us realize that we would have lost so much. He makes every single day worth living. And the best part is- he is the liveliest person in the family.
This incident did make us all believe that “A healthy child makes a happy home”.
Life is so strange. It easily takes away the people you love, from you. It changes drastically in a fraction of second, before you even realize what just happened.
In a moment, a life is taken. In a moment, you lose somebody you love. It’s like you met that person few hours ago, talked casually and since you were getting late, you bid them adieu but after those couple of hours, because of one single mistake, one negligence, that person passes away. You met him/her and maybe said few rude things, maybe you didn’t talk much even though you guys were meeting after a very long time because you had to go so you went. Maybe you exchanged number hoping to talk to each other some other day but now that the person only exists in your memory, you cannot say a proper good-bye. You can not talk. You cannot communicate because all that is left of him/her is his/her memories; the time that the two of you spent together. And memories are just reflection of past. They keep changing. However you cannot change the fact that the person is no more.
Life is so unfair. First, it gives you a meaning to live and when you finally decide to live your life, it takes away that reason from you as if it were never really yours, it was something borrowed.Something or someone who never really belonged to you but all this time you thought it did.
That was the day I received a phone call from a friend of mine who used to work in the same company where he did. I wish I hadn’t answered that call. But how could I have known that the call was going to destroy my entire life.
I was waiting for him to come home because it was a very special night for both of us. And I wanted to surprise him. So, I had cooked his favorite dish and baked choco-lava cake as well. He loved my baked stuff. He always appreciated my talent of baking and painting and my sense of fashion and I always appreciated his writing. Apart from his work, he used to write for this famous site Write Up cafe and every time he wrote something, he would come up to me to dictate it to me and ask for my views.
Anyway, I didn’t bake too often but only on special occasion. It took me more than three hours to prepare dinner and dessert for him. After all, it was our fourth anniversary. Four years together are something to celebrate. The phone rang and I was hoping it would be him because he’d usually be home by 8 but that evening, he wasn’t. I picked up the call expecting it to be him and said-“Honey, where are you? It’s 9:00 pm already.” A girl spoke. It was his secretary. She called me up to inform me that he would be late because he had received an urgent call from a special client who wanted him to bring some papers. So he took off and asked her to convey the message to me. I was disappointed but it was his work so he wasn’t really the one to be blamed. It was the first time he had forgotten about our anniversary. Otherwise it was always him who would arrive home with this large bouquet in his hand and a gift. We had been in live-in for three years now and each day had been special. This was that time in our lives when both of our lives were going to change. This year, we were going to tell our parents about our relationship. We were really looking forward to it. And we both knew that after marriage, things would change a bit. Work would be given priority and we both would have to compromise a bit. I wanted to work even after marriage and he was aware of that. He didn’t have a problem because he was liberal-minded. He believed in gender equality and that’s what I loved about him. Anyway, so I knew that moments like that would come again in future where I would be waiting for him with a beautifully cooked dinner and he would be late or stuck in traffic or would have piled up paper work to do and all that. So, I thought maybe I should get used to it.
I waited for him for another hour thinking that he must be stuck in traffic. I called him up but he wouldn’t answer his phone. Maybe he was driving or his cell phone was on silent mode. So, I only left him a message. I was waiting for him because I didn’t want to have dinner alone that night even though I hardly had anything that day. I was so lost in preparing the best meal for him and cleaning the house and writing my article for the fashion magazine I was working for. Suddenly I received a call from Tanya. She and I didn’t talk that much but she knew about our relationship. Most of his co-workers knew. I answered the called and said hello. She sounded nervous and she was hesitating a bit. I asked her whether she was okay or not. She said she was but by the time she hung up the call, I wouldn’t be. I started to worry. Strange thoughts crossed my mind in that one second. I thought maybe it was about him. I hoped it wasn’t a bad news about him being in a car accident or getting injured or anything. I asked her what it was. And then she told me the bitter truth I didn’t want to believe. Her exact words were “I saw your guy checking into a hotel with his secretary. I hope I’m wrong but she was in an evening gown. I don’t know what else to say. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this.”
I dropped the phone and burst into tears. I didn’t know what to do. My entire life shrunk in that moment. I was shattered. He had been cheating on me and I had been so ignorant of the truth. All these late night meetings and the paper work was all a lie. I was blindfolded the entire time. I was living a lie. My mind went blank. All this time he had been sleeping with someone else. He was touching someone else’s skin. While he was kissing me good-bye, he was kissing someone “I love you” on the other side. I didn’t know what to do, so I did what I thought was the best. I left the apartment and went to live at my mama’s house which was only three-four kilometer away from our place. I grabbed all my stuff and just took off. I was so hurt that I didn’t have the power to even see his face. Not that I didn’t want to slap him or ask for an explanation. I really did but I was not in a position to decide what was right and what was wrong. This betrayal has completely broken my heart and changed my attitude towards all the men. It wasn’t the first time I had been betrayed. So, I just decided to leave all the memories behind and never to see his face again in my life. This was a promise I made to myself that day.
25th June 2015
11:00 am
It had been six months and that two-faced-ex of mine had stopped calling me. My life was going smooth. I had recently got a promotion at my work and at the same time, I was offered a new job in London. Since travelling was my passion, I decided to take that job and work in London while I could travel at the same time. That fashion journalism job had many perks and free tours were one of them. I was moving forward with my life. I had to leave for my 8:00 pm flight the next evening and my luggage was all packed. During these six months, I had been through a very rough time. Avoiding his calls at first was hurting but then, it became a habit of mine. There was not a single second when I thought that maybe Tanya could have been wrong and maybe he really did go to that hotel but only to meet his clients or maybe they only checked into the hotel because they had to wait for their client or maybe that lady was his client. But I had decided not to look back.
26th June 2015
18:00
My taxi was waiting outside my house and I was ready to leave the country. I bid my parents adieu. My mama looked at me. She was in tears. I wiped her tears and told her not to shed another tear. I gave her this assurance that I’d be back. I told her I’d visit her twice in 6 months and if possible, more often. She just kissed me on my cheeks and said, “take care”.
I sat in the taxi and waved mama good-bye. She was talking to someone on the phone and said something to me. I couldn’t make out what that was. It was difficult to read her lisping. So, I just smiled and said I love you too.
19:30
My flight was going to leave in thirty minutes and I was a bit nervous. While waiting at the airport, I kept thinking about all the people I was grateful to who had helped me move on and stay strong during those six months. And I do not know why but while I was thinking about all those people, he came to mind. And a part of my heart wished that he would be there sitting next to me. It was such a strange feeling to expect someone who had cheated on you, to wish you good luck for your new life. I was a bit confused. I thought what if he actually came there to see me and I changed my mind. What if he came there apologizing and asked me to stay? What would I say? How would I react? This was a chance for me to start a new life and I so didn’t want to let this chance go because if I did, I’d regret for the rest of my life. I needed to stay strong and then I thought, “Why was I even expecting him to be here?” I needed to stay focused and grab myself together like I did in these past few months.
19: 50
The announcement for the flight was made. I picked up my luggage and looked around hoping to see him. I felt a bit of pain in my heart. I felt sad for reason unknown to me. I was upset. Maybe it was because I was leaving my mama behind or my friends. I couldn’t decide what it was. As I was walking with my heavy luggage, I heard a familiar voice calling my name. I thought maybe it was just me and I was hearing things but then, the voice again called my name. I looked around to see who was it and I saw this man hiding behind flowers. They were red roses, my favorite. I asked the man to show his face because I didn’t expect it to be him.
The man asked me to first read the card that was attached to the bouquet. I said I didn’t have time for all this. My flight was about to board.
He: Please, do this man a favour and rest would be up to you. You can leave after that.
I took the card out and saw that it contained a short message which said
“Dear Love
It was all a misunderstanding. I do not know what Tanya told you but I never cheated on you. I wasn’t even in the town that night. I had gone to buy a ring for you because I wanted to propose. It sure was my secretary whom Tanya saw but the man wasn’t me. I still love you with all my heart and I cannot afford to lose you at any cost. Still forgive me if I didn’t treat you well during the time we were together.”
I looked up while my eyes were in tears. While I was reading his letter, he had been looking at me continuously. I looked at his face.
He: I am sorry for not trying any harder to tell you the truth but as soon as I heard that you were leaving the country, I couldn’t help but to come see you and tell you this.
He sat on his knee, took out a ring and said,
“Please marry me and make me the happiest man on this earth. Please come back. I love you with all my heart! I’ll keep you very happy, I promise.”
I nodded my head and said yes. I wore the ring and as he stood up, he kissed me desperately as if we were meeting after a decade. The way he kissed showed how much he had missed me and how eagerly he wanted this moment to arrive. All this time, he was waiting for the right time to propose to me.
By that time I knew that I had missed my flight and my only chance to start fresh but I didn’t care because I had found something I had been craving for since the past couple of months. I had found “True Love”.
There’s a very large dump adjacent to my school building where people come with a bottle filled with water (which I doubt is clean. Well, it doesn’t need to be, does it?) and defecate there. They are the ones who cannot afford to live in even one story building or a hut; they have no roof under their heads. That’s why they defecate there because they know the fact that if for so many years, no soul has complained about their habit of throwing garbage and defecating there, then perhaps no one ever will. They wouldn’t care now that they didn’t bother to care for such a long time.
Few students of our school, kids of fifth and sixth grade & lower and upper kindergarten are the luckiest of all because they have a nice view to look at every morning from their classroom’s window; the view of people attending “nature’s call”. They can look out the windows all day long, take a peek during their class and smell the fresh air. Now aren’t they lucky to have a view like that after all?
Fortunately, after five or six years (or maybe even more than that) the area has now been cleaned up. The garbage has been removed and the view has lost its “charm”.
My point isn’t to point out the how much dump has been piled up there during the last couple of years or even to point of the negligence of my school authorities or mock them but it is to seek the attention to this one question that I have been asking myself since the time that area has been cleaned-“ Had the person who actually paid to get the area clean, not paid for it, would no one have raise their voice?
And if it is my school authority that got the dump removed, then why now? Why even bother after so many years? Why so late?
Those people who throw garbage and defecate there, they do it because they have no other option; because they are forced to live in such condition and even if they want to change it, they cannot because they aren’t financially strong and it’ll take time for them to bring the change (not that they aren’t guilty). But why can’t we raise our voice when we know that this is the most powerful right that we have the right to express and right to be heard.
Years will pass by and people will still continue to throw their waste there and once again, we’ll be back to square one.
However, if we make sure that this doesn’t happen, then it never will. What needs to be changed is our attitude. I’m sure that many of you will be able to relate to this story because after all, we live in India and we all know that not every place here is clean.
We have a habit of creating mess and then complaining about it later because others did not clean that mess up but at times, we forget that the mess was created by us only and we solely are responsible for it.
So, from this day; from today why don’t we all step up and raise our voice against such actions. One little effort from our side will definitely bring a positive change. Only if we all do our bits, India will change; Our country will develop.
The above article is an entry for the Strepsils #AbMontuBolega Campaign
The Power of Voice to Clean India
There are places that need cleaning, people who deserve your attention & authorities who need to hear your opinions! Don’t be a silent spectator. Raise your voice and make a difference.We know that raising our voices against all that is dirty in our country is a power that we all have. Let’s exercise the power of our voice & work towards a Swach Bharat.Kyuki Bin Bole Ab Nahi Chalega #AbMontuBolega.
No matter how much we criticize our own country but there’s no doubt that whenever we cross a foreigner who’s dressed in sari, we feel proud of our culture; that whenever we see Amitabh Bachchan or Iffran Khan or Tabu or Priyanka Chopra or Aishwarya Rai Bachchan casting in a Hollywood movie, we feel proud; proud of the fact that Bollywood is getting famous. It’s all because of our culture.
India, a country with the most colorful festivals, each of them having a great story behind it and a moral value attached to it (be it Diwali, Holi, Raksha Bnadhan, Bhaiya dooj or any other festival, it carries a meaning in it, a story behind it’s celebration); a country with such variety of cultures, languages, people who diverse in their own way; a country that defines the true meaning of “Unity in Diversity” because no matter how many states our country is divided in, it’s one single nation and we are proud of it. Here’s a list of things that show that we are “more Indian than we think” and so is the rest of the world:
1. Indian festivals:
Name any one person in your entire family who doesn’t get enthusiastic when it comes to celebrating or being a part of the Indian festivals, the delicious food, exchange of gifts, drooling over hundred kinds of sweets, wearing traditional clothes, playing with colors or lights, bursting crackers & rockets, visiting your relatives and decorating the home? You can’t.
Be it Diwali, Holi, Raksha Bandhan, Bhaiya Dooj, Ganesh Chaturthi, Pongal, Holi, Onam, Dusshera or any other festival, nobody and absolutely nobody likes to sit at home when you know that the whole country’s celebrating your favourite festival outside, dancing, sharing happy moments and creating sweet memories. No matter how busy you are, no matter even if you are an atheist, you will burst one cracker or two on Diwali, throw a water balloon on some random guy on Holi, tie a Rakhi on your brother’s wrist and come out of your room to help your mom in decorating your home and of course, getting your hands on your favourite sweets. We or any other human cannot resist themselves from being a part of “Indian Festivals”.
2. Indian traditional outfits:
Now, you all would be lying if you disagree when I ask you that whether you have a nice *Indian* traditional outfit in your wardrobe or not. In fact, there’ll be a very few of you (Indians) who wouldn’t have uploaded any picture of them dressed in Indian outfits. According to me, no matter how gorgeous or chic you look in western outfits, the true beauty of a girl is reflected when she wears a suit or a sari and same goes for boys also (not sari but shervani, yes! Guys do look nice in shervanis.) Western outfit are classy and fashionable but renIndian outfits hold a special place in the heart of every Indian and yes, people who aren’t Indians as well.
Nowadays you’ll easily find some foreigner wearing saree and having her hands decorated with beautiful designs of mehendi during a festival season or otherwise. They love Indian culture and so do we.
3. Street Food:
Full of flavours, full of spices and full of “tadka”, Indian food wins the stomach of all the “Foodies”. Even if you complain about the quantity of oil the dish is cooked in or the presentation or hygiene, we always drool over the street food whenever we smell the aroma of it. Hefty eaters just cannot stop themselves from “tasting” it, even if they are on diet. My dad is a best example to show that Indians are “more Indian than they think”. He goes to gym at 7:00 am, comes back, have milk, goes to office, sit there for three hours talking about his “new daily routine” and his “dieting” thing and on his way home, buys a full plate of Chole Bhature, eats a Samosa while driving and packs Jalebi for desert.
4. Indian Weddings:
Yes, there are people who do not like the concept of “arranged marriage” or do not believe in the constitutions on marriage at all. But even they are one of those people who love to visit an Indian wedding so that they can lay their eyes and *ahem!* Mouths on the food counter *Inidan Food*. (Foodies, Pardon me but it is true! Who would miss on those dishes and free desert, right? ; unless the groom or bride is your enemy. Well, even then, it’s food.)
Indian weddings are so loved by everyone (specially girls ) that they dream about getting dressed in a beautiful heavy sari and have a day of their own; a day when they’ll be looking most gorgeous and the weight of their wedding lehenga won’t bother them because the way it reflect one’s beauty makes everyone go speechless. So, yes, it’s worth it. People love the whole tradition of Indian wedding from Haldi, Mehendi, Ring ceremony till the last day of wedding; the saath feras and this is what makes Indian weddings different from the rest.
No wonder the culture is getting famous in regions outside our geographical boundary.
5. Indian Monuments & the stories behind them all:
There’s a reason that Taj Mahal is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Mughal emperor Shah Jahan hadn’t built it to mark his existence forever. He did so in memory of his wife Mumtaz. Just like the Taj Mahal, India has numerous monuments which are marvelous like Qutab Minar (Delhi), Golden Temple (Amritsar), Mysore Palace, Charminar (Hyderabad), Sanchi Stupa (Madhya Pradesh), Elephanta Caves (Mumbai) etc. And people from all across the world come to visit these monuments.
The People And You 
