response from India

Doxic Shock, from India, commenting on my mention of several Indian locations among places of the decade:

“I must thank him for mentioning the places in India as some of his favs. Yes, Palolem is beautiful, but I wonder, if he has seen the pristine/virgin beaches of Konkan coast (western India – Maharashtra coast + north Karnataka coast). It might persuade him to include a few without of course striking off Palolem. Mumbai, really the city of ‘maya’ (the place where life could move before eyes like a reel), but was quite disappointed that he left out Calcutta (sorry Kolkata!) for its potpourri, and Delhi for its history. Ladakh: no description is enough to record.”

In response:

*I’ve never been to Calcutta (Kolkata), unfortunately

*I did like Delhi a lot, but I couldn’t put everything on the list; same for Chennai and the Andaman Islands, where I also had a great time; also Agra, where the Taj Mahal is incredible, though Agra itself is a terrible headache of tourist harassment

*never been to the beaches of Konkan coast, but if they are better than Palolem then that’s really saying something; Palolem was so good it was more like a psychological archetype than a real place

Doxic Shock also says he’s never been out of the country, but being locked up inside India is one of the least limiting things I can imagine. It’s like 10 different countries rolled into one.