The "Real" India

So I checked out a slide show from the NY Times' Travel section:

Slide Show: Staying in the Real India

Accompanying article: Villagers in India Open Their Homes

So, instead of staying in 4-star hotels in New Delhi that get attacked by Pakistani terrorists, stay in rural villages for a better sense of the "real" India -- whatever that means (apparently rural, poor farmers). Great.

The problem is, when tourists visit rural places to view the great attraction that is "real" India, they tend to bring along some baggage. Observe:

* Unlike the other homes in the village, the tourist guestrooms have electricity, en-suite bathrooms with Western-style toilets and sinks with running water
* Buckets of hot water are lugged up to the rooms for bathing
* Cooks are trained in food hygiene! Good to know, since this is India, after all.
* Food is made especially less spicy. Awesome -- we certainly wouldn't want to challenge our delicate palettes.
* Daily life in the village is "humdrum" -- in stark contrast to your busy office back home!
* But you can still stare and snap photos of women farmers carrying enormous loads of produce on their backs. Suddenly the office doesn't seem so bad.
* You can even visit their religious sites. Nothing is too sacred for the intrepid tourist -- the whole world is yours to photograph, judge, walk all over, abandon, and write up in the next Lonely Planet guidebook or NY Times Travel article.

So much for the "real" India.

But then again, these people probably make good money offering homestays. The man has kids to feed, after all. I wonder if this is a trend that will catch on?