The latest issue of New Yorker (December 22 & 29, 2008) has one of those Incredible India tourism campaign ads.

Amid all the blah blah blah of the New Yorker ad, one sentence stood out:

If you are seeking peace and fulfillment, visit India.

After all the repeated attacks and rapes on foreigners, the not infrequent terrorist attacks on different cities and lack of most basic infrastructure, peace and fulfillment in India?

You may find a lot of things in India. But peace and fulfillment are the last things you’ll find in modern India.

If Western Tourists believe all that hooey about peace and fulfillment in India, they are dumber than we give them discredit for.

The grim reality is the Indian government is getting desperate because foreign tourist arrivals are dropping in India, which in any case has never been a hot destination for tourists.

In November, tourist arrivals are said to have dropped 2.1% over the same period last year.

Surely, there must be a reason -actually many reasons – why even Croatia gets so many more tourists than India.