Then we d travel to Jaipur, the Pink City, and finally wrap up in the Himalayas. But when I told friends here in America that I d be traveling to India, there wasn t much interest in the places I would stay or the cities I would visit. What surprised me was that everyone had a passionate reaction to India itself. So I decided to talk to Americans who have spent enough time in India to form impressions from the inside. I lucked out during our second night in Delhi when we were invited to the residence of the American Ambassador, who s been stationed in India for the past three years.
People aren t lukewarm about India.
We ve had 256 house guests at the ambassador's residence. You come and you re likely to come back. His wife believes the negative images of India come from a media that s only interested in earthquakes and train crashes. When I told her about the conflicting reactions I received towards India, she noted that those reactions reflect the reality of the country. Well, that s true in India, because everything in this country is true.