Summary

So was it all worthwhile? Overwhelmingly yes!

Sure we were sometimes well outside of our comfort zone. We witnessed poverty that is unheard of in this country for probably over 100 years. There were cows, pigs and packs of dogs scavenging in middens not just in the villages but in the cities as well. In the north you had to keep watching where you placed your feet. We slept in hotels that were sometimes cold and damp and not too clean. We had issues with the availability of hot water. We slept in an open sleeper carriage with 60 other people. Tuk Tuk drivers were continuously trying to con us.

However we saw magnificent things - the Taj Mahal at dawn, surely the most beautiful building in the world. We had fantastic experiences - the Sri Meenakshi temple after dark as Shiva's special night was celebrated. We hunted for tigers in the most beautiful nature reserves and rode around markets and slums in a cycle rickshaw. We visited a village school, hospital and police station. We rode on a camal cart into sand dunes and climbed up the highest dune to watch the sunset over the countryside. We ate chicken curry for lunch in a beautiful mango orchard. We lived with a local family in the Backwaters, sharing their food and home for the night. We sang Kerelan folk songs in the dark while canoeing on a river. We received outstanding hospitality at our beach resorts at Marari Beach and Varkala and ate fabulous food almost everywhere we went. We stayed in Maharajas' palaces and swam in the warm waters of the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.

We were lucky to meet some charming people - our CEOs in particular were very enthusiastic, knowledgable and helpful. Our local guides were charming and occasionally quite quirky. The local people who gave us service were so keen to be helpful. Our travelling companions, for the most part, like minded fellow travellers intent on enjoying the trip, putting up with the occasional discomfort and determined to try to understand the confusing and contradictory country of India.

What we found most shocking was the way that Indians treated each other. No-one gave eye contact to waiters or anyone else providing a service, nor was there ever a please or a thank you. Waiters in particular were treated like personal slaves. The caste system, although now outlawed, is alive and well. Many millions are condemned to a life of poverty or backbreaking, filthy work simply because that was what they were born to do.

As the world's biggest democracy, India's economy is growing at 5.6% per year and, next year, will overtake China to become the world's fastest growing economy. Where will the country be in 10 years? Difficult to say - wealthier, no doubt, but where will that money have gone? To the poor? Perhaps, but only if you believe in trickle down economics. Is Hinduism, with its inherent discrimination, compatible with modern democracy and consumerism? I wouldn't have thought so.

On the plus side most Indians are incredibly hard working and optimistic and these attributes may see them through the huge changes on which they have embarked. To quote a line from the Best Marigold Hotel "Everything will be all right in the end. If things aren't all right then it isn't yet the end."

Well things aren't all right yet - but it might be best to see India before they are. We're glad we did.