So I have returned from India with my bowels in full working order

[Alberto Balsam Rodriguez]

Ave some of that, Dutchie.

India - what a f*cking dump. Can Indians not actually plan anything? Every part of it seems to have grown organically and as a result you get a load of building sites, some rubbish others not, surrounded by a load of shanty shops, some rubbish, others not. Garbage everywhere, traffic everywhere, pollution everywhere. What a dump.

Lovely people all right, they seem very happy and genuine. Although how anyone can be happy living in that dump is beyond me, and quite why anyone would ever want to visit it given how many other wonderfully interesting and civilized parts of the world there are I will never understand.

Having said that, I quite enjoyed my trip and will look forward to returning to see the lovely people. India, less so.

Sounds like you ended up in one of the big cities?

[World's End Stella]

Sounds like you ended up in one of the big cities?

Two. Bombay and Bengaluru - both sh1tholes.

[Rich]

Two. Bombay and Bengaluru - both sh1tholes.

I stayed in a quite charming hotel called The Leela Palace in Bangalore, actually.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Two. Bombay and Bengaluru - both sh1tholes.

And your list of more beautiful stations than VT includes? Kipling's dad did the carvings on the inside.

But India is the Indians. Anyone who doesn't get it has no soul. Go and hang out with some sadhus or street kids. **** sight more fun that this backward little island. Can't wait to get back.

[Sir C]

And your list of more beautiful stations than VT includes? Kipling's dad did the carvings on the inside.

But India is the Indians. Anyone who doesn't get it has no soul. Go and hang out with some sadhus or street kids. **** sight more fun that this backward little island. Can't wait to get back.

He favours 'resorts' in the UAE

Point of order though, just because we have an ignorant chav class (including immigrant Canadians) who are as thick as pigshít, describing 'this island' as 'backward' seems harsh.

[Burney]

He favours 'resorts' in the UAE

Point of order though, just because we have an ignorant chav class (including immigrant Canadians) who are as thick as pigshít, describing 'this island' as 'backward' seems harsh.

Also, I'm not sure that suggesting those whose only refuge from the relentless ghastliness of everyday life is a sort of stoic/ascetic mysticism or children consigned to grinding poverty as exemplars of all that's best about India is exactly convincing me of its merits, either.

[Peter]

Also, I'm not sure that suggesting those whose only refuge from the relentless ghastliness of everyday life is a sort of stoic/ascetic mysticism or children consigned to grinding poverty as exemplars of all that's best about India is exactly convincing me of its merits, either.

Its a pretty ****ing horrible place by most measures. Gut wrenching poverty to the point of starvation set against a backdrop of obscene wealth and the veiled notion that it is all our fault.

WES has been to Bangalore which in my experience is about the best place to visit.

[SWv2]

Its a pretty ****ing horrible place by most measures. Gut wrenching poverty to the point of starvation set against a backdrop of obscene wealth and the veiled notion that it is all our fault.

WES has been to Bangalore which in my experience is about the best place to visit.

Listen to Judith fúcking Chalmers here.

[Sir C]

Its a pretty ****ing horrible place by most measures. Gut wrenching poverty to the point of starvation set against a backdrop of obscene wealth and the veiled notion that it is all our fault.

WES has been to Bangalore which in my experience is about the best place to visit.

Is it 'horrible', or simply 'different'?

Habitual street crápping aside, it's surely generally more fascinating than horrible?

[Burney]

Its a pretty ****ing horrible place by most measures. Gut wrenching poverty to the point of starvation set against a backdrop of obscene wealth and the veiled notion that it is all our fault.

WES has been to Bangalore which in my experience is about the best place to visit.

Oh, I had to take issue with a bolshie Indian bird the other day who was blathering on about my colonial privilege and how it was only right that 'white men' be made to pay for the sins of empire. I pointed out that my ancestors were starved and oppressed by the Brits quite as much as hers and you don't hear me moaning about it. She said that was because, as a white man, I was still benefitting from imperialism. I pointed out that, as the child of a rich, English-speaking Indian family who was earning a very nice living in England by writing stuff in English, so was she.

After about an hour of back-and-forth, we agreed to differ.