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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Indian tourists can antagonise even the most gentle people in the world

Our obsession with bargaining robs us of something called self-respect. We are prepared to make a spectacle of ourselves.

Devaa! Devaa! Summer holidays are here! Watch out, global tourist destinations – deplorable desis are on the move and on the loose. 

What is it about desi tourist behavior that makes us so unwelcome, so despicable, and not just to foreigners, but to each other as well? We seem hell-bent on disgracing ourselves wherever we go. Our crass conduct and ridiculously rude behaviour antagonise even the most tolerant and gentle people in the world – from the calm Bhutanese to the ever-smiling Thai people. 

Many countries, even those desperately in need of foreign exchange generated from tourism, shudder at the thought of loud, belligerent Indians invading their shores and embarrassing both themselves and their hosts.

What happened in Hanoi recently, unfortunately, did not stay in Hanoi. There were Indians—a bunch of overenthusiastic travellers, uncaring about airport protocols or the convenience of co-passengers—forming a large circle on the tarmac of Noi Bai International Airport and breaking into a garba performance like they were at a Falguni Pathak dandiya raas in Vile Parle during Navratri. 

This isn’t the first such instance of inconsiderate, obnoxious public conduct on foreign soil. Indians are serial offenders. What on earth gives us the right to behave like rowdy, ill-mannered,........

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