Publishes a story by photographer Katya Peshakova about how to arrange life in fabulous India.

I have been interested in India since childhood. When I was 16, a friend invited me to a Hare Krishna festival. In the Krishna consciousness movement, I was more attracted not by the organization itself, but by Indian culture in its general manifestation. It was important for me to know the essence of India: history, culture, language, religion. I literally fell ill with this country and admire it to this day.

Road to India

When I first visited India, I realized that I wanted to live in this country. It only remained to figure out how to stay here forever. The move was quite painful due to material and visa problems. I was 22, I could not immediately get on my feet, so I had to return home several times a year. My plan worked only three years later.

While I could not work, I simply began to contact Indian photographers and organizations. I needed to understand the process, get an idea of ​​how an Indian wedding works, so I offered my services to the studios for free. Only one responded, and every day I went to free shootings and lived on savings made in Russia.

After some time, they began to pay me a hundred dollars for shooting, although later I found out that the studio was selling my work several times more expensive. When I gained a client base, I decided to open a company and work under my own name. At first there were difficulties, but in the end we overcame everything, and my company has been successfully operating to this day.

Varanasi

Upon arrival in India, nothing surprised me: I was well prepared for this country, so there was no dissonance. I did not dream of a fabulous India and took all the realities for granted. When you really want something, you stop noticing minor inconveniences.

I settled in Varanasi, and before that I lived in Goa and Delhi. Varanasi is a very specific city, it is especially revered because it is considered the city of Shiva. Many believe that Shiva is present here, and those who complete their life path by cremation in Varanasi will immediately receive liberation, even if they did not deserve it with their lifestyle.

The city is like a labyrinth: new roads are cut into the old part, located on the river bank. Until now, while walking, I find new streets here, although I have lived here for a long time.

I settled in the old part of Varanasi because I wanted to be closer to the river. This area is considered Europeanized. I feel comfortable here, because on the one hand - a European piece of life, on the other - a historical place with many temples within walking distance.

Life is a game

The locals are very open and friendly. Hospitality is one of the principles of Indian culture: the host must treat the guest as a deity. Indians of all Asians are most similar to Russians, so I do not feel a barrier in communication. They can come up on the street, ask about life and immediately become your friend.

I managed to live for some time in an Indian family, thanks to which I improved my language a lot, although I learned Hindi back in Russia. Even though I am fluent in it, I try to take additional lessons from the teacher.

In Varanasi, you rarely meet a native speaker of the Russian language, which cannot be said about Goa. However, the attitude towards our compatriots in these two states varies greatly. In Varanasi, people are more modest, stick to traditions, and in Goa, people are spinning in the tourism business, and this has ruined many. Although Indians don't see anything wrong with making money. In Indian religion, a person must go through four stages to achieve liberation: kama - satisfaction of desires, artha - making money, dharma - spiritual growth and moksha - liberation. Artha is one of the steps: a person is not considered bad if he makes a profit. It's a sin not to make money on tourists!

Indians do not deceive tourists, but play with them. In their view, life is a game. A person with an Eastern mentality has an attitude: "I call a thousand, because we will bargain and reach a certain amount that suits both." The Indian enjoys the process, and at the word “thousand” we turn around and leave without even joining the game.

The older generation at the mention of Russia often says: “Oh, Hindi Rusi bhai bhai!” ("Indians and Russians are brothers"). This is the slogan of Soviet-Indian friendship, which was popular in the 1950s-1980s. People remember this.

Traditions

India is famous for its myriad of holidays and unusual traditions. New Year is an occasion to take a walk for young people. The most important Hindu holiday is Devali. Many set off fireworks, decorate houses with garlands, and businessmen close account books, so in my mind this holiday has become the New Year. The holiday of victory over evil is more important to me, I try to celebrate it with loved ones.

I like to watch wedding ceremonies. In each state they are different, even different castes of one state celebrate this event in their own way.

The wedding ceremony begins with matchmaking. The groom's relatives come to the bride and agree on the wedding. In the morning, a mihendi ceremony is held - the skin of the bride and her girlfriends is painted with henna. In the evening, on the eve of the wedding, a sangid is held - a dance wedding program. The highlight of the evening is the dance of the bride.

On the wedding day, a haldi ceremony is organized. Turmeric paste mixed with oils and incense is used to anoint the bride and groom. On our white skin, it does not look so beautiful - it takes on a yellow tint, and Indian shimmers with a golden color. The wedding is considered completed after the newlyweds walk around the fire seven times.

Housing problem

The cost of renting housing in Indian cities varies depending on the area. Apartments in a residential complex are more expensive, as you need to pay a membership fee. In Delhi, I rented a three-room apartment in a residential area for 25 thousand rubles. Apartments outside the residential complex will cost 10-15 thousand rubles, but the conditions here are much worse.

My area in Varanasi is considered expensive due to the huge number of Europeans, so I pay about 20 thousand rubles for an apartment. But this does not mean that poor people have to live on the street - you can find a room even for two thousand rubles. There is housing for every budget, it all depends on requests.

I use the so-called free medicine - that is, state. Even a tourist in India can count on preferential service. This type of medical care is good, but the hospitals are poorly equipped, and the waiting lists for doctors are long. All poor people use state medicine, because a visit to a government clinic costs only 20-30 rubles.

Detractors

My whole life is vacation. I read a lot, explore the city, do yoga, arrange workshops for European travelers who want to get to know India better. Today, for example, we talked about Indian folk painting. In my free time I blog. My goal is to show India in all its glory.

There are ill-wishers who see only the bad in India. The question is often asked: “How do you live among such dirt?” I stopped answering that there is something to see in India besides dirt. When I am once again asked about this, I ask a counter question: “Is there really nothing else to pay attention to in a civilization that is more than five thousand years old?” I want people to notice more subtle things, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I recently posted a photo of a man meditating on the Ganges River. The camp of commentators was divided: some wrote, “How I want to be there,” and others, “Why is he sitting in such a garbage dump?” This is an exemplary situation - how differently people can look at the world.

Indian fairy tale

Mom was prepared for my move - she knew that sooner or later it would happen. Real friends supported, and what the rest think - I don't care. This is my life and I don't care how others feel about it.

I've been here for almost ten years. I often receive friends from Russia. I am changing the established notion of India as an unsafe place - with my life and blog, I show that this is just a stamp and a template.

I still do not understand why a positive thinker is told that he looks at the world through rose-colored glasses? Why are we used to the fact that negativity must be taken for granted? I show India as we saw it in childhood: like an Indian fairy tale, like something unusual. Because that's what she is.

What do we know about India? In the imagination of most people, it seems to be a fabulous, romantic and mysterious country. But what is real life like in India? How strong is its economy? What is the size in India today?

Geographical location and general information about the country

(this is the official name of the country) is a large state in South India with a rich history and culture. It is the birthplace of the ancient Indus civilization, which has achieved significant success in art, urban planning and agriculture.

Modern India occupies the entire Hindustan peninsula, extends to the Himalayan mountains in the north, and has wide access to the ocean in the south. From the western side, it is washed by the waters of the Arabian Sea, and from the southeast - by the Bay of Bengal. The total length of the coastline of India reaches 7500 kilometers.

Today India is home to 1.34 billion people (2017). In terms of population, it ranks second in the world, second only to China. Although, according to scientists, by the middle of the 21st century, India can overtake China in the “demographic race” and take a firm first position.

What does India produce? The country's economy and its structure

India is one of the strongest and fastest growing economies in Asia. The country has the fourth largest GDP in the world ($4.7 trillion). However, per capita income is low at $2,700 per year. According to this indicator, the country ranks only 118th in the world.

The structure of India's GDP is as follows:

• 18% - industry.
• 28% - agricultural sector.
• 54% - the service sector.

The main branches of the Indian economy: automotive, electronics, mining, oil, chemicals, food and pharmaceutical industries. The country is the largest supplier of mica, bauxite, various equipment, textiles, agricultural raw materials, as well as software and medicines to the world market.

The country's economy consumes a huge amount of energy resources (in particular, oil and coal). Agriculture in India is extensive. Rice, tea, wheat, cotton, jute, and sugar cane are grown here. Among other things, India is a significant donor of investment. Most of the Indian funds are invested in the economies of Singapore, Mauritius, the Netherlands and the United States.

Currency and average salary in India

The monetary unit in India is the rupee. Fractional coin - pice. Rupee to dollar exchange rate: 68:1 (as of May 2018). That is, for one American dollar you can buy 68. For 100 Russian rubles, you can get about 110 rupees.

The currency of India is presented in coins and banknotes. The smallest denomination in the country is 5 rupees, and the largest is 2,000. The exchange rate of the rupee against the dollar, euro or ruble is constantly changing, so it is recommended to use online currency calculators.

The average salary in India according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) for 2017 is $223 per month. According to this indicator, the country occupies a disappointing 121st place in the world. The monthly minimum wage in the state is 4,000 rupees ($60) for rural areas and 5,500 rupees ($82) for urban areas. It should be noted that the value of the average salary in India has a significant regional differentiation. Thus, the ranking of cities with the highest earnings includes Mumbai, New Delhi, Goa and Calcutta.

Standard of living in the country: main indicators

In the ranking of countries on the Human Development Index (HDI), India is in 131st place, between Bhutan and Honduras. In general, India is a country of striking contrasts, where the stratification of society is quite noticeable.

In one city, the poorest slums can coexist with fashionable hotels, boutiques and expensive restaurants. Part of the Indians live in terrible conditions, eating mainly rice and vegetables. At the same time, other segments of the population can afford to have a permanent servant of housekeepers, gardeners and cooks. A list of the following statistical facts will help to better understand the standard of living in India:

• A third of the country's population are illiterate (cannot read and write).
• 90% of Indian cities do not have sewerage.
• Only half of India's cities have access to clean piped water.
• About 300 million people in the country are deprived of access to electricity networks.
• Only 20 major cities in India have municipal public transport.
• Nearly a quarter of India's population lives below the poverty line (less than two dollars a day).

"No force can stop our country on the path to progress!" - these words were recently uttered by the Prime Minister of India. Indeed, India is already among the world leaders in the field of IT technologies. Light industry and high-precision production are developing at a rapid pace. However, whether all this will affect the well-being of the Indians - time will tell.

Let's also find out how things are in India with medicine, education and landscaping.

The medicine

According to numerous reviews of our compatriots who moved to distant India for one reason or another, the situation with medicine there is far from ideal. Medical services in this country are either very expensive or cheap, but of extremely poor quality. However, in recent years, India has become one of the centers of "medical tourism". This is due to the presence of a fairly large number of professional English-speaking doctors.

A large percentage of private and public clinics are equipped with the latest technology, and they employ real professionals. By the way, many of them studied abroad (including in post-Soviet countries). However, treatment in such clinics is available to only 10% of the Indian population.

Education

At this stage, the state is trying to provide school education to absolutely all its inhabitants, including those who live in slums and villages. But many families living in poverty and poverty prefer to send their children not to school, but to work from an early age. Child labor is a serious problem in modern India.

Today, there are about 500 universities in the country. Technical specialties are especially popular. Education in most universities is conducted in English. The cost of one year of study at an Indian university is about 15 thousand dollars. However, a person with a higher education has a good chance of finding a decent and well-paid job in his country.

Transport and landscaping

Inside the country, it is possible to travel by various modes of transport: from traditional trains and buses to very exotic bike and auto rickshaws. The most developed rail transport. The entire territory of India (with the exception of the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir) is covered by a dense network of railways. In recent years, air traffic between major Indian cities has been actively developing.

The improvement of public spaces in India is in an extremely deplorable state. In many settlements, in fact, there are no recreational zones at all. The streets are rarely equipped with sidewalks, there are very few parks and squares. Some Indian hotels offer a unique service - the so-called "day pass". At this time, you can be in the well-groomed territory of the hotel and use a certain list of amenities.

In India, there is a rather acute problem with sanitary cleaning. Dirt and garbage on city streets is quite a familiar picture for this country.

Prices for products and services

In India, prices for local vegetables and fruits are very low. They are very tasty, as they are always fresh, and are available all year round. Dairy products are more expensive (a liter of good milk costs about 80 rupees), and cheeses are very difficult to find in local stores. The choice of meat is also very limited. More details about food prices are described in the following video.

Communication and Internet services, as well as travel are quite cheap. Clothes and shoes are also cheap. The price of household appliances is approximately comparable to Russian ones.

Finally…

Summarizing all of the above: is it worth thinking about emigration to this country? If you look for work here - then only in the field of high technology. Opportunity to work part-time in the tourism industry. As for working specialties, the salaries in India in dollars are extremely low. It is important to note that it is quite difficult for a foreigner to find a job here. To get a work visa to India, you need to conclude a contract with a local employer. At the same time, the monthly salary should not be lower than 2100 US dollars.

62 year old Irina Alexandrovna from Magnitogorsk says in India to a waiter in Hindi with displeasure: “Be careful. Why did you bring naan cakes with cheese unbaked? I'm not your tourist!" The waiter turns pale, mumbles something and disappears. “It’s the only way with them,” Irina says sternly. “Otherwise, they will definitely deceive you.”

She says that she moved to India immediately after graduation: “I was 25, in my last year I jumped out to marry Raj. He is 10 years older, looked after beautifully, and I was a girl not spoiled by attention. Such love flared up, passion - all the friends were envious.

The wedding was played in two countries in turn - both in the USSR and in India. Irina admits that at first she was shocked by the country. “I thought it was like in a movie. Well, princesses are beautiful, temples, palaces, elephants, coconut trees, dancing on every corner. And on the first day, a snake crawled into my bedroom - I squealed so much, I woke up the whole house. Raj calmly crushed her with his foot, saying, well, nothing, it happens. Mud on the streets of the mountain, beggars crawling in scabs, torrential rains for 3 months in a row ... Romance has diminished. I wanted terribly smoked brisket and doctor's sausage, they just dreamed about it, but you can't buy it anywhere. I'm tired of fighting cockroaches, nothing can poison them: they are healthy, the size of a finger. Raj kept laughing: with our cockroaches, they say, it is not necessary to fight, but to be friends. But Raj loved me madly, and I loved him, and this is the most important thing.

Five years ago, Irina Alexandrovna's husband died, but she no longer wants to return to Russia. “There is no point. I chat in Hindi, wear a sari, go to the market with my local girlfriends to buy chili peppers for green beans in curry. I watch Indian serials how good conquers evil, and the poor with beautiful souls are better than the disgusting rich. I like it here, in general."

Photo: / George Zotov

mother-in-law and white horse

I was not told the exact number of women from the Russian Federation living in India, but their approximate number is estimated at several tens of thousands: from 30,000 to 70,000. Basically, these are our girls who married Indians during the period of great friendship between the USSR and India in the sixties and eighties years of the 20th century, when many Indian students studied in the Soviet Union, and all Soviet ladies burst into cinemas to watch "Disco Dancer". India seemed to be a mystical and alluring "abroad". Those who arrived after the nineties did not particularly develop with the exotic.

“The climate is terrible, the heat is sticky,” complains the 28-year-old Victoria from Krasnodar, who settled in Kerala with her Tamil husband in 2012. - Always keep the air conditioner on - electricity bills will come in space: so sit by the fan, which drives hot air. The sun burns the skin: I thought I would become dark-skinned to the envy of everyone, but constantly under the cream. There is nothing to do at all. In India, it is not customary for wives to work: even the poorest husbands have their women at home. At first I said that I wanted to become a tourist guide, my mother-in-law scolded me: are you out of your mind? What will the neighbors say about my son if his wife goes to work? And mothers-in-law in India have more authority than in Russia, they do not dare to object to them. We had a great wedding: we celebrated for three days, music, dancing, tons of flowers, the groom came for me on a white horse. The main thing in marriage in India is children, they give birth to a lot, but I was not ready for this. I thought: well, after thirty years we’ll start ... Scandals began every day: “Why don’t you want to? The purpose of a woman in the world is a child! ”And they are definitely waiting for a boy to give birth:“ the weaker sex ”is not in price. Such cases are not uncommon: if a wife finds out on an ultrasound scan that she is pregnant with a girl, she has an abortion on family recommendation. We were not officially divorced, although I returned to Krasnodar. I fly to India only for the winter, then it’s good here, you can even swim in the sea. The husband sighs, of course, but doesn't mind. He loves me."

god with tail and banana

The main "scarecrow" for our women in India is animals and insects. “God, how tired of monkeys I am! - angry Marina, a former resident of Veliky Ustyug. - Brazen as hell, they can pull an earring out of your ear, buy a bag of nuts on the street to eat - they will jump on your shoulder, snatch it right out of your hands. So I would have hit the monkey with an umbrella: they are dangerous, they infect all sorts of diseases. But you can't, the monkey is a sacred animal. The Indians swear at them, they can brandish a stick, but never to hit them. Like, they are divine. Damn, what kind of god can be with a tail and a banana ?!

“My constant life partner in India is dichlorvos,” says Aleksandra, a 35-year-old Khabarovsk resident who has lived in Trivandrum for 10 years. - Ants hesitated, spiders, some midges: they bite, then you will itch for a month. Mosquitoes carry dengue fever and malaria. At first, she didn’t leave the house without being splashed with repellents, then she waved her hand ... Well, why, not everyone gets sick in a row. You have to be careful, but don't panic."

But with elephants, everyone has excellent relations.

“My neighbor keeps three elephants,” Alexandra says. - Funny, such a colossus, but calm, like a cow. And when an elephant with a driver walks through the city, he obediently stops at a red light: already accustomed. Many of our ladies have a hard time with Indian food. Irina Alexandrovna, who dreamed of a doctor's sausage, explains: her late husband was a vegetarian, and she had to "reformat" herself.

Photo: / George Zotov

“When he was courting me, I didn’t pay attention: well, he eats only salads, and okay, who doesn’t like cucumbers and tomatoes. And after they came to India, it turned out that they don’t eat meat and chicken in the family. Some nightmare! Then I got involved, now I don’t use meat of my own free will: somehow it’s easier to feel, calmer. Fruits, vegetables, milk, paneer cheese - that's it. The first year of my life together, I tried to accustom my husband to Russian food. I mix Olivier - he doesn’t eat, damn it, even vegetarian. But you can’t make a herring under a fur coat, there are no such products. There are girls who haven’t been used to Indian food even for thirty years: they go to the store at the Russian embassy in Delhi, where our products are exorbitantly expensive: they grit their teeth, the poor, but they buy.

"Fool, ruined karma"

“If you like being a housewife, you live like Christ in your bosom,” says the 57-year-old Ludmila, who moved to India in 1984 from Saratov. - Just keep an eye on the house, and you are showered with gifts, cherished, cherished, carried in your arms. She gave birth to her first child - the father-in-law and mother-in-law gave gold, bracelets, rings, earrings did not know what to do with. They love children; Don't drink: Most Indians rarely drink alcohol, it's not in their culture. If someone comes home drunk, they gather advice from relatives and scold him: the fool, they say, spoiled his karma. Morals are strict: if I put on European clothes, so that the dress is necessarily below the knee, this is not Goa, where everyone goes half-naked. I love the Indian sari. A healthy thing: size does not matter, I bought matter, wrapped myself up and went to myself. I was bored at first, of course, did not know what to do. You always stick around at home, if you go out for a walk alone - it’s not accepted, you must definitely be together either with your sister or with your husband’s mother. I used to think that in India, whole crowds dance on the sidewalks, like in a movie. Oh, I was wrong."

It is surprising that girls from the regions of Russia, having arrived in India, speak local dialects, wear saris, learn how to cook complex Indian dishes and cope with the heat: although, of course, it was very difficult for them. Here's my word of honor: we don't value our women the way they really deserve it.

A 19-year-old Rajasthan man was sentenced to death for raping a seven-month-old girl. Recently, the number of sexual crimes has increased in India, the country is in the ranking of the most dangerous for women. Russian women who lived in India told Snob about the place of a woman in Indian society, harassment and rape attempts

India, 6 May 2018. The man in the photo is accused of raping and setting fire to a 17-year-old girl. Photo: AFP

According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, India has become the most dangerous country in the world for women: about 40 crimes are committed against them every hour. The problem has become so acute that in April of this year, the Indian government introduced the death penalty for the rape of girls under 12 years old and increased the minimum prison term for those whose victims were under 16 to 20 years. sexual harassment and voyeurism.

Fatal sex crimes became punishable by death after the publicity of the gang rape of a student on a bus, which occurred in 2012 in Delhi. The girl was abused by six men and thrown out of the bus to the side of the road. Doctors fought for her life, but they failed to save the girl. After that, mass protests took place across the country, and the government was forced to toughen penalties for sexual crimes.

Another high-profile story happened in 2017. In northern India, a 10-year-old girl gave birth, who became pregnant as a result of rape. The pregnancy of the girl became known for a period of more than 20 weeks, when it was already too late to have an abortion. At the same time, the girl herself did not know about the child, she was told that she had a large stone in her stomach that needed to be removed. After a caesarean section, the girl's family abandoned the child, and her uncle was detained on suspicion of rape.

However, not only local women, but also tourists are raped in India. In early May of this year, in the Indian state of Kerala, police found the headless corpse of a woman who was identified as a 33-year-old Latvian tourist who had disappeared a month earlier. The woman came to India to be treated for depression and disappeared. The police found that two local residents drugged her, raped her, and then beheaded her. The suspects were detained.

In India, women suffer not only from sexual crimes. In Jaipur, a young man poured acid on a woman after refusing to marry him. At the same time, the victim was already officially married and had three children.

A 35-year-old woman from Lucknow was the victim of an acid attack for the fifth time a year ago. She was first raped and doused with acid in 2008 over a property dispute. The same men threw acid in her face in 2012 and 2013 to force her to drop the charge. The next time, they made me drink acid in front of my daughter. The men were arrested but soon released on bail. After that, the woman was attacked on the territory of a special guarded shelter.

Russian women who lived and worked in India for some time told Snob how they escaped annoying attention, harassment and what they did to avoid becoming victims of rape.

"Village men perceive white women as porn stars"

Ekaterina, 33 years old

Ekaterina has been living in India for several years. She first came to the country in 2010, two years later she took a yoga teacher training course in Dharamsala and got a job there as an English translator for Russian tourists. For three years she lived in India for half a year, and then returned to Russia for 1-2 months. In 2015, Ekaterina moved to Delhi, found a job there in her specialty, and last year she married an Indian.

Now I work as a teacher, I have both Indian children and expat children in my students. In advanced and wealthy families, parents invest a lot of money in the comprehensive education of children. In poor families, parents sometimes do not send their daughters to school, as they will still be housewives. The government is trying to fight this and organizes all sorts of courses (such as cutting and sewing) for women, creating jobs. Therefore, in India, you can buy fabrics with handmade embroidery very cheaply.

Before marriage, from 2015 to 2017, I rented accommodation in Delhi in various areas, including disadvantaged ones. She went and went everywhere alone. Sometimes I returned from work late, after midnight, but I didn’t get into the story. In large cities and tourist areas, it is quite safe for a woman, if you do not get drunk to unconsciousness in nightclubs, do not accept drinks and sweets from strangers (there were cases when drugs were added to sweets), do not wear too revealing clothes, do not go to visit and do not invite to your room, do not get into cars with strangers or unfamiliar men. It is better to meet someone in public places. You should not travel alone to non-tourist places, villages, it is better to travel as part of a group or with a man. You need to behave confidently and, in case of danger, shout loudly and threaten the police.

There are a lot of foreigners in Delhi. Most locals treat them with respect, because they think that all foreigners are very rich. Only villagers perceive white women as porn stars (in Western films they show everything on TV) and stare at them.

Traditional Indian society does not accept revealing clothes: women in mini, tight and low-cut clothes are considered prostitutes. In large cities, this is treated more calmly, you can even see Indian women in such clothes.

India is very different from north to south and from west to east. Matriarchy reigns in some northeastern states and in some places in the south. The woman is the head of the family and inherits land and property. In other parts of the country, there is a rigid patriarchy: a woman becomes a housewife after marriage, even if she is rich and well educated. In some Hindu-Orthodox families, women do not go out alone without a husband or his relatives, they sit at home. In such families, inter-caste and inter-religious marriages are not welcome, and often such love stories end in “honor killings”. Marriages are usually concluded by agreement, in accordance with the caste, the position of the family in society, material wealth, education, etc. Sometimes a dauri (dowry) is demanded from the bride's family - many crimes against women occur for this reason. It happens that after the wedding, the husband's family asks for more and more money, morally and physically put pressure on the woman, sometimes it ends in suicide. By law, it is forbidden to demand dauri, but many follow the traditions. All of the above applies to orthodox Hindus from northern and central India. Fortunately, in large cities everything is not so: now there are a lot of modern families where women work and do not have any restrictions from their husbands. Many Indians study abroad, many have relatives in Europe and America.

Most of the crimes against women involve Indian women, not foreign women.

The government is trying to fight crimes against women: there are many crisis centers and helplines in the country. You can even complain to the police about obscene suggestions and comments from men. I know a case when a woman hailed a taxi, and a pervert taxi driver was driving and masturbating. She filmed it on her phone camera, pressed the panic button on the app, and the police arrived. He was arrested and later sentenced to a real prison term.

"The vast majority of Indian men are horny maniacs"

Maria, 31 years old

Maria lived twice in India for 9-10 months, with her boyfriend and alone. And these two times turned out to be very contrasting. After the second trip, the girl became disillusioned with Indian men "for the rest of her life."

In 2010, my boyfriend opened a yoga center in the southern state of Karnataka, and I met tourists and took care of organizational issues.

Two years later, I returned to India alone, with nostalgic feelings, dreaming of seeing the state of Rajasthan, returning to the old places, and that's when my rose-colored glasses broke. I settled in Jaipur and got a job as a teacher of Russian and English at a school. I had only 10 minutes to go to work, but they were enough in full: many men just stopped and frankly stared, every day someone came up and asked me for a phone number, invited me somewhere. They usually started with What is your name?, and the third or fourth question was already Do you have a boyfriend? Can I be your boyfriend? After some time, I simply stopped answering their questions, because communication with a simple Indian man always ends up like this. There are exceptions - rich, well-educated men who studied abroad and saw the world.

Sometimes men just asked me to take a picture with me, and then tried to grope. More than once I was grabbed by different places by men passing by on a moped. The vast majority of Indian men are preoccupied maniacs. In Jaipur, I completely forgot that you can wear clothes that expose your legs and shoulders. I dressed very closed, and then there was a little less attention.

Sometimes I went out of town to the sea. Once I went far from the main beach. A teenager came up to me and started asking me something, and then tried to grab my chest. I was frightened, cracked him on the arm and rushed to run. Then I thought that I could handle the frail guy, but then I got really scared.

I had expat friends in Jaipur. We sometimes went to hang out with them in nightclubs. One day I went home alone, in a tuk-tuk. It was about three in the morning. When we arrived at the house, the rickshaw demanded that I pay more than the agreed amount. I thought he was talking about money, but then the rickshaw jumped out of the tuk-tuk and grabbed my chest. I screamed like crazy. The rickshaw got scared and ran away.

I have also been to Goa. They got used to white people there, but even there an unpleasant story happened to me. We - three guys and three girls - went there to celebrate the New Year. But we couldn’t dance in any club: the locals surrounded us in a tight ring and tried to hug the girls, even if the guys tried to block us.

And these stories are not scary compared to some others. At the time when I lived in India, the story about a tourist from Denmark thundered all over the world. She came to Delhi alone, got lost and followed some men who promised to show her the way. They raped her with the whole crowd.

Until recently, I believed in people and tried not to stigmatize men. Until I had an unfortunate incident with a teacher from our school. He was a respected man, with a good reputation, married, with children. He was the last person I would have suspected of indecent behavior. One evening I was returning home and ran into him not far from my house. He said that he was waiting for his friend, he was late for half an hour, and asked if it was possible to wait for him at my place. I naively agreed. Half an hour later, I realized that a friend is unlikely to come. My colleague was not going to call him, but he began to behave strangely, and then suddenly asked: Can I kiss you? I replied that it was probably time for him to go home, and threatened to tell his wife and the headmaster about everything.

By the end of my stay in India, I wanted to crack every man who came up to me. I left Jaipur with the feeling that I had had enough India for the rest of my life and that I was completely disillusioned with the Indians. They don’t stare at local women like that and they won’t come up with an offer to have sex, at least there is some ostentatious respect. But foreign women, from their point of view, sleep with everyone.

“It is impossible to avoid attention and prejudice towards yourself”

Anastasia, 27 years old

Anastasia married an Indian and periodically visits his homeland in Bangalore. It is difficult for her to get used to the traditional position of a woman in Indian society.

In principle, it is not dangerous for Indian women to walk the streets if they dress and behave according to the traditions of society. Local girls who choose their own partner, place of work, study, meet people from a different caste, go to parties, go against the system. Their behavior is not approved, and they can get into trouble.

Foreigners need to be extra careful. Due to the color of their skin and the stereotypes inherent in Indian society, white women are considered easy-going, frivolous and vulgar. Therefore, it is better for white girls not to go out at night, you need to behave and look modest. Ideally, you should go out with one of the Indians - this will make your life much easier. Since I went everywhere with my husband and mother-in-law, they protected me from many dangers. However, avoiding attention and prejudice against yourself is impossible. Thanks to the constant protection in the person of my husband's relatives, I did not encounter open manifestations of harassment. But she constantly caught the greasy looks of men on herself: many stare and undress with their eyes, regardless of age and marital status.

In India, you need to break yourself in many ways, be flexible, adapt. Indian society is absolutely patriarchal, so the woman here is engaged in housework, serving her husband's parents and raising children. People often ask me not “How is your studies or work?”, but “How is work in the kitchen? What are you cooking for your husband? It was very difficult to get used to it.