Is Anywhere Safe?

Holi Festival--India's Festival of Color--is coming up soon, so I ask my travel agent to make arrangements for me to fly to northern India for one day for the celebrations. He emails back: Holi will be celebrated in grand manner in Mathura, in Uttar Pradesh. But according to our Delhi office, Mathura is not safe for lady passenger traveling alone...

Anyone know where I can rent a man for a day? :o) (Hey Rob - if you're reading this - when is it that you're coming to India??) Wonder how many men it would take, to make it safe for a "lady passenger"...

It's been raining safety warnings here lately. Last week was a busy one for the U.S. Consulate in Chennai, which periodically sends out alerts to Americans living in India. First, a warning about anti-U.S. demonstrations throughout India triggered by the publication of the Muhammad cartoons: "The embassy wishes to remind Americans that demonstrations in India can occur or escalate spontaneously and pose a risk to travelers' personal safety."

On the heels of that comes an alert that bird flu has now spread to India, with over 50,000 birds dead and another million or so being killed as a preventive measure.

This morning, tens of thousands of Muslim and Communist demonstrators took to the streets to protest Bush's visit to India.

And just for good measure, a nasty new mosquito-borne virus--Chikungunya fever, for which there is no vaccine or cure-- is making its way across the Indian Ocean. Not even my rent-a-man could protect me from that one...

Is anywhere safe??

Comments

[shannon clubb]

So you , the adventurous one--- will that keep you from traveling alone?

[Basia]

Shannon: Probably not. I just need to decide, do I prefer death by bird, man, or mosquito?

[Mary Pirani]

Basia - Thank you for the blog. You are hilarious. Let me introduce myself. I am Mary Pirani (born U.S.) my Husband Raees was born and raised in Mumbai but has lived here in the U.S. (Georgia) for 20 years. I feel so lucky to have found your blog. We are considering retiring in Goa (I am 36 he is 40 and he is so smart like all of the other Indians that I have known so early retirement for us.) Well....in my research I could find nothing really informative to Guide Me. Then I found you. (And all your commentors, hi one and all!) Hubby says the slipper story is too funny, but true...and he thinks you should make a movie like "Coming to India".
I read your blog entries to him...
thank you for the realistic view of what it would be like to live there...I think I am becoming more and more convinced that it is worth exploring.
I think I would just say to myself...what would Basia do.
Mary
Georgia, USA

[DonnaK]

Might be a good time for processing all of your previous expereinces and not looking for any new ones for the moment

[Basia]

Hi Mary from Georgia, and welcome to the blog! I am happy to know that you are finding it useful (as well as amusing...)

A "Coming to India" movie sounds great - I've received lots of encouragement from my blog readers for a book also - but I have no clue where to begin with either one. Maybe someday!

As for "what would Basia do" - I would have no hesitation retiring in Goa - or several other places in India, for that matter.