No Skin Please, we are Indians...

One of the most striking things about modern India is the vast difference between the way the the country views itself on TV as opposed to the reality of what the life of the vast majority of Indians actually is. Obviously things are a lot cleaner and better kept then in reality, but you could say that about US commercials as well, since every car is always driving threw the Hamptons or the Pacific Coast Highway. The gap is greater here, but still comparable.

However, the place where this manifests itself more then anywhere else is in women's clothing. If you only watched Indian TV commercials, you would be under the impression that most Indian women, especially young women, wear more or less western cloths. Perhaps a little more conservative then US teeny-boppers, but stylish and tight fitting. If you saw a commercial for a beach resort you would think that most Indians wear bathing suits and go swimming similar to westerners.

In fact only the tiniest percentage of upper class Indian women wear western cloths. Indian clothing is still the norm for almost every woman in India. Basically, the only places I have ever seen Indian women in western cloths was in nice areas of Mumbai and at resorts such as Goa. As far as bathing suits go, I have never seen an Indian woman in a bathing suit, except for on TV. Most Indian women, and most men for that matter, do not swim. If men swim they do wear a standard bathing suit. If women swim they usually go in the water in full Indian dress. Today in Goa we did see a couple of well to do young Indian women go in the water wearing stylish western cloths, but that is about as riske as it gets.

The other annoying side effect of this is that when we go to the beach, it is often uncomfortable for Nisha to wear a bathing suit because so many Indian men, who rarely see such things stare very obnoxiously. This is much improved in Goa, where western tourists are a lot more common, but it is definitely one of the major drags of going to an Indian beach.