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By:

Naresh Kamath

5 November 2024 at 5:30:38 am

Indian Tourists Need a Reputation Reset

India has long taken pride in the philosophy of ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ - the belief that guests deserve warmth, respect and dignity. It is an idea deeply woven into the country’s cultural imagination, often been projected as a defining Indian value. As millions of Indians travel overseas every year, the conduct of a small but highly visible section of Indian tourists is increasingly shaping how India itself is perceived abroad. The issue is not about a single incident or a handful of viral...

Indian Tourists Need a Reputation Reset

India has long taken pride in the philosophy of ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ - the belief that guests deserve warmth, respect and dignity. It is an idea deeply woven into the country’s cultural imagination, often been projected as a defining Indian value. As millions of Indians travel overseas every year, the conduct of a small but highly visible section of Indian tourists is increasingly shaping how India itself is perceived abroad. The issue is not about a single incident or a handful of viral videos but a pattern that is drawing notice from hotels, tourism operators and local authorities across the world. The debate gained fresh momentum after reports emerged of a Swiss hotel issuing a notice specifically addressed to Indian guests. The advisory reportedly requested guests not to pack food from breakfast buffets for later consumption and reminded them to maintain silence in corridors and balconies. Hotels routinely issue guidelines. But when a particular nationality becomes the subject of a specific advisory, it inevitably raises larger questions about perception. “It is a sorry state of affairs. Indians, especially in groups, are displaying atrocious behaviour. This was anyway bound to happen,” says Subhash Motwani, founder of Namaste Tourism. Embarrassing Incidents Whether the notice was justified is another separate matter. The question is why such perceptions are emerging in the first place. Recent months have seen several incidents involving Indian tourists gain traction on social media. One widely circulated video showed travellers performing garba on an airport tarmac in Vietnam. Garba is among India’s most vibrant cultural traditions and a source of immense pride for millions. Yet airports are highly regulated spaces where safety protocols and discipline take precedence over celebration. The incident became symbolic of a larger problem. The rise of social media has encouraged some travellers to treat foreign destinations as stages for content creation. Public dancing, loud celebrations, disruptive behaviour and attention-seeking stunts may generate views and engagement online, but they can also leave lasting impressions on locals and fellow tourists. India is hardly the first country to confront such a challenge. During the 1950s and 1960s, American tourists acquired a reputation for arrogance abroad, giving rise to the phrase “Ugly American.” Britain spent decades dealing with the international embarrassment caused by football hooliganism. China faced similar concerns as outbound tourism surged during the early years of the twenty-first century. A nation’s image is shaped not just by its economic achievements and diplomatic influence but also by the behaviour of its citizens overseas. India today finds itself in a similar situation. Indian tourists are now among the most visible traveller groups across Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. This is, in many ways, a remarkable success story. However, with visibility comes responsibility. Hospitality professionals across destinations frequently point to recurring concerns. Excessive noise, queue-jumping, disregard for local regulations, overcrowding hotel rooms and attempts to bypass established rules through jugaad are among the complaints often cited. Collectively, repeated experiences can create lasting perceptions. The most revealing aspect of the debate is that Indian travellers often display exemplary discipline in countries known for strict law enforcement. In destinations such as Singapore, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, compliance with rules is generally high. Complaints tend to emerge more frequently in places perceived as relaxed or lenient. That suggests the challenge is not one of awareness. Most travellers understand the rules perfectly well. The problem is often a mindset that rules can be negotiated when consequences appear unlikely. Changing that mindset is far more important than introducing additional regulations or issuing fresh advisories. Every interaction at an airport, hotel, restaurant, tourist attraction or public transport system contributes to how a country is viewed. These everyday encounters often shape perceptions more powerfully than government campaigns or tourism advertisements. As India stakes its claim to a larger role in the world, its citizens must recognise that national prestige is shaped not only by economic achievements and diplomatic successes, but also by everyday behaviour abroad. The overwhelming majority of Indian tourists travel responsibly and leave behind positive impressions. Their conduct rarely becomes news because courtesy seldom goes viral. Yet a handful of highly visible incidents can overshadow thousands of positive experiences. The challenge is to encourage responsible travel and a greater awareness that behaviour abroad carries consequences beyond the individual. The conduct of Indian citizens overseas should reflect the confidence and values of a nation seeking not merely recognition but enduring respect. (The writer is a senior journalist based in Mumbai. Views personal.)

The Myth of the Inspired Artist

Art has long been romanticised as a gift from the gods, but behind every brushstroke lies practise and relentless resolve.


Robert Hannah, Master Isaac Newton in His Garden at Woolsthorpe, in the Autumn of 1665, circa 1850
Robert Hannah, Master Isaac Newton in His Garden at Woolsthorpe, in the Autumn of 1665, circa 1850

The artist struck by divine inspiration driven to create a masterpiece is a persistent trope glamourized in literature and film. Often it is a self-perpetuated myth propagated by artists unwittingly doing themselves a disservice, because reality is somewhat different – and always has been. The proverbial 1% inspiration 99% perspiration applies to art as much as to any other field

M.F. Husain, 2007
M.F. Husain, 2007

of endeavour, creative or otherwise. One might even posit that an artist is more likely to be hit by lightning than by inspiration. Michelangelo said, “If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.” Many apples have fallen on people sitting under trees, but it’s only because Newton had been thinking something through that the falling fruit led to the theory of gravity. Artists have painted remarkable scenes of the banishment of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden, and still-lifes with apples, but none waited idly, to be hit with the idea. American artist Chuck Close said, “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get the work done. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you’re not going to make an awful lot of work.”


Apprenticing in an atelier, be it that of a Renaissance master or Nainsukh of Guler, would have been an exacting and demanding vocation. Practice, practice, practice, was the refrain. Many are unaware that modern art schools too are a slog. The studio art component of the curriculum consists of month after month, year after year, in which the student must put their work up for critique. Umpteen late-night supplications for inspiration to strike have been in vain. Putting up work means being told over and over what is wrong with it, how it’s not good enough, how you can do better. Constant judgement in a field that is subjective by definition, can play havoc with the self-esteem of a young artist-in-training, but it is better to learn early that making art is not easy and requires hard work and tough skin, not just in art school but for the entirety of the artist’s career. Excelling at one’s craft is a continuous endeavour of learning the rules so they can be broken later. If the artist is at all to be considered a vessel through which creativity flows, it is only because “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web,” to wit the ever-quotable Pablo Picasso. This can be interpreted to mean they are constantly “inspired,” and consequently, constantly at work. MF Husain, always brush in hand, painted on canvases, on walls, on cars and on horses, even on someone’s front door while he waited for them to open it.


Inspiration is often paired with the other intangible – talent. French writer Émile Zola said, “The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” Sketches on napkins, however inspired, remain ideas until they are developed, because “success is a worn down pencil.” (Robert Rauschenberg). In the current debate over whether AI can be as creative as a human being, there is much angst over defining creativity. Algorithms for a Mozart piano concerto or a Picasso painting can only be generated because Mozart and Picasso developed a body of work over their lifetimes (brief for Mozart, long for Picasso) by being prolific. Henri Matisse, another relentlessly hard-working artist who termed his last 14 years in a wheelchair “a second life,” said, “Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.”


Though many of the artists quoted above were prolific, quantity is meaningless without quality. Those with a more measured output are not lesser artists. There are only 10 paintings attributed to the polymath Leonardo da Vinci, and Johannes Vermeer of Girl With a Pearl Earring fame has only 34. “Art resides in the quality of doing, process is not magic,” said architect and designer Charles Eames. There is no substitute for the process, though artists may disagree on whether it is the means or the end in their personal practices. Art “must be conceived with fire in the soul but executed with clinical coolness,” said Joan Miro. This fire and ice approach means having the courage to accept that not everything created is equally worthwhile – that lesson learned in studio art critiques.


Yet even with hard work, sometimes aided by great inspiration, “Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.” (Isaac Bashevis Singer) This is very much the reality of the artist’s creative life. The blank canvas holds all the possibilities, but the completed one rarely matches up to what the artist had imagined. Does art result from inspiration, passion, talent? Author Natalie Goldberg doesn’t waste time ruminating on these questions: “One just has to shut up, sit down, and [create].” Opportunity, marketing, luck? These are even more elusive intangibles, definitely not taught in art school.


(Meera is an architect, author, editor and artist.)

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