Skip to main content

TAJ (Agra) : Tourists and Health

Image
By
The Taj is iconic of Indian tourism and perhaps draws the largest number of International tourists. Those who dare to visit India and Agra are charmed and awed by the pristine and majestic beauty of this marble edifice.  It is a common site to see International tourists arriving in air conditioned buses, huddling in groups with mineral water bottles in their hands, posing for that drawing-room-mantle photograph with Taj in the background, and then wrenching their noses and stealing glances at the squalor around the city of Agra darting off back to Delhi.
We are lucky that the Taj and Agra are in India and in Uttar Pradesh, and that it is a monument admired and sought after by tourists from across the world, but can we market the Taj alone without improving the surroundings, the city of Agra and the fabled Yamuna that are so intricately entwined with each other?
Tourists are warned before arriving at Agra to be careful of vendors, touts and self styled guides who might take them for a ride, or perhaps even rob them, to be careful with the food and water they consume – safer to carry your own water and to eat at their starred hotel, that they should not venture out into the city unescorted, that they should stay huddled together and not wander off anywhere on their own, and that they should carry their medicines as attacks of tummy cramps, loose motions, vomiting and fever often come free with their Agra package!  I marvel at the tourists who do finally make it to admire the beauty of Taj with so much weighing on their minds.
Any one visiting Paris or Heidelberg would recall how tourists are made to feel safe to wander anywhere they wish on their own, browse through curio shops in small streets, sit at roadside cafe’s or bistros and taste the local cuisine or wine, watch the clear waters of Seine or Neckar rivers and perhaps take an exhilerating boatride and come back safely to bed in their hotels with a dream-cum-true feel. 
If tourism in Agra has to get the much needed boost, we need to look beyond the Taj. Yamuna needs dredging and cleaning and its banks need to be made free of strewn multicoloured polythene bags. We need to ensure that shops selling “pethas” are hygienic even for the delicate western tummies, that hoodlums don’t cause uneasiness to visitors, that roads are indeed safe not just from goons but also the police, and medical help of international standard is available a phone call away to make our visitors feel safe and reassured. They will then be able to ejoy the beauty of Taj much more and encourage their friends too to come to Agra, UP and India.
As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Food Fads in Liver Disorders

By
In an attempt at trying to do well to those they love, spouses and parents often enforce diets on patients of liver diseases that often turn out to be detrimental. The commonest food fad is pale insipid boiled cabbage being doled out to nauseous patients suffering from hepatitis that makes them puke even more.  The liver, in a way, is a buzzing manufacturing unit that requires lots of energy to keep its multiple functions going. And it derives all this from the food we eat. During disease, such as during an attack of jaundice, when many of the liver cells get killed, the liver attemptsdamage control by trying to regenerate quickly. For its cells to multiply however, it requires a generous supply of energy that comes from carbohydrates, and protein, the building block for its cells and tissues. Boiled green vegetables unfortunately have neither of these. Hence the situation often progresses to that of a starved liver unable to recuperate due to cut-off food suppl...
2 comments
Read more

How do you like your Tea?

By
The way we drink our tea may not only reflect our taste and style, but our health as well. Tea drinking is around 4700 years old and had its origin in China. Leaves of the shrub Camellia sinensis (tea plant) were in use at that time as a remedy for wounds and diseases. With the legendary emperor Shenong brewing and drinking its extracts, tea drinking became a popular habit in this part of the world. The British, impressed with the brew and the customs that go with drinking it in China and Japan, tried to emulate and evolve a tea-drinking custom of their own, and soon “tea-time”became a familiar term across the globe. Every home or cafe seems to have its own flavour. The north Indian variety of “chay” is a glass of hot creamy milk (more cream as it gets more “special”) with lots of sugar and a lacing of  “tea liquor” of strong tea that grows on lower heights (Assam, Nilgiri, Sri Lanka etc). In contrast, the Chinese and Japanese prefer light green or jasmine tea without a drop of mi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Questions from a Doctor’s Life

By
There is hardly any person in Uttar Pradesh who has not heard of Dr D K Chhabra, a senior neurosurgeon, who died recently. Over the decades his expertise, pragmatic advice and popularity had broken the shackles of his narrow surgical field coming to be known as a “brain-specialist”and a genuine adviser for all health problems. I got to know him in 1987 when I joined the upcoming Sanjay Gandhi PG Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) in Lucknow as a young member of the faculty in Gastroenterology. He had moved from his alma mater the KG Medical College where he is still regarded as a legend. An omnipresent bachelor doctor living in the duty room readily available to help anybody anytime.He was tasked to heading and developing Neurosciences at SGPGI. He had an eye for detail and was tasked additionally by the director to set up not just his department, but the whole hospital, the building, equipment and the campus. DKC was a tall and handsome man who spoke little. But when he did inl...
1 comment
Read more