Authenticity – The A of Responsible Tourism
To explain the principles of Responsible Tourism, The Blue Yonder has
come up with the A to Z of Responsible Tourism (www.atozofrt.com). I was inspired by this to write a series of article for Consumer Voice Magazine in Delhi - http://consumer-voice.org/ShowMagazines.aspx.
As urbanites travel more and more looking for newer experiences, a slew
of “village experiences” are coming up right outside the cities. These are run
by hotel chains that excel in the hospitality business. You come away having
had fun and being fed a variety of food that could be new for you. To you it
doesn’t make a difference whether it was authentic or not, you went to relax
and have fun and you achieved that.
The purist in me is a little disgruntled at these experiences. As long as
guests have fun, I should be satisfied. However, when they start talking of
“village life” and how they know all about it based on that visit, then I feel
the need to intervene. Travelling around India, what is fabulous is that the
experience you are likely to have changes almost every 100 kms. To standardise
these myriad experiences into a uniform one outside every big city is doing an
injustice to the peoples of India.
What is the solution?
Avoid the short cut. If you want to know how a Mewari village is, (not
even Rajasthani), you need to travel to Udaipur and go on beyond to stay with a
family or in a local guest house. It is then that you get the smell of mud and
that of burning cow dung that is very unique to Mewar. However much you try,
this uniqueness cannot be made available outside Delhi. I think it has to do
with the water, the air and the hospitality of the people there which cannot be
transferred as is anywhere else.
To give an example, however many photographs of the Taj Mahal you may
have seen, going to Agra and seeing it live at different times of the day and
night is very special. Keep that in mind the next time you see a piece of craft
or stay in a “local style” hut.
I knew little of architecture when I started out in the field of tourism
about seven years ago. As I travelled I realised that housing styles in rural
India are suitable for the climate as well as make use of natural resources
available in the surrounding areas. This would mean that as you go along the
West Coast, the houses are built using the laterite rock with tiled roofs
having a high slope and big overhang to handle the heavy South West Monsoons.
As you go up the Western Ghats, the rock is replaced by mud, which is protected
by thatching on all four sides during the monsoons. In the Himalayas, it is the
stone that is favoured for both roof and walls – with those areas affected by
earthquakes moving to corrugated sheet roofs. In Kutch the cottages are
perfectly circular and made of mud with tiny windows to keep out the heat and
dust. Where ever you travel, the house construction ensures that the
temperature within remains ambient regardless of the temperature without.
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| Weaver's House in Pranpur - made of local stone |
People, world over, have made the effort to live comfortably using the
resources available to them. And then over the last half century this has been
turned topsy turvy with concrete taking over the world. It has its uses and I
am not asking for a ban, but when a Kutchi farmer builds a house of concrete
and then adds a layer of mud on top, I would like to register my protest.
Probably from having stayed in the all-mud huts, I can actually feel the
difference. Yes, mud construction needs regular maintenance, but it doesn’t
need an air-conditioner in summer or a heater in summer. What you say on
electricity bills makes up for what you put into maintenance.
The smell of wet earth after the first rains – I wait a whole year for
it. If it were bottled and available online, would it still be as special?
What is an authentic experience without local cuisines? What I enjoy most
about travelling is the variety of food in India. If I enjoy a kothu parota on
the streets of Madurai, can it really be replicated on the streets of Panjim?
Why not enjoy the poee-bhaji in Panjim instead? Yes, I yearn for a good
fafda-jalebi sometimes – but I know that if I have it anywhere outside Gujarat,
I am just not going to be satisfied. And that gives me something to look
forward to. When I travel, I stick to the local food as much as possible – those
flavours just cannot be had elsewhere.
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| Breakfast in Ahwa, Dangs District |
Next time you travel try to appreciate what is unique to where you are
going – enjoy the special flavour of authenticity. Hold out for the real thing.
Gouthami
