a french friend's memoir..

These are the excerpts from a french friend who visited India..and I hope we learn a lesson..
"....I must say we are happy to have left India.
We eventually got used to the lively (yet smelly) atmosphere of the streets, but we got sick of the continuous tourist hassle, which made our trip very uncomfortable. It was impossible for us to walk quietly in the streets or visit a monument without being harassed by insisting shopkeepers or beggars (not to mention the uncountable rip-off's we had to avoid). After a while, we were forced to turn down anyone who tried to talk to us. In such conditions, travelling was not very pleasant and meeting/sharing with Indian people was just impossible. I am quite sad we did not have any real insight into indian culture because of that.
The monuments we saw were very impressive and convinced us that India had a rich history and an exceptionnal touristic potential. However, I am afraid most Indians are wasting this potential by considering tourists only as a stack of 500 rps. notes and giving them a very bad welcome. Most tourists we met on our trip had the same impression.
I hope that things will change and that people will realize that harassing tourists is not the best way to make them spend money and come back.
You are lucky not to have this problem, with you being indian. I recommend you to visit Taj Mahal (you probably have) and the Khajuraho temples if you have some time : they are wonderful places."
Jai Hind
PS:I reallly hope things change ..and I dont really know how to defend this..I have been faced with many questions before about India and well i think i did pretty well to defend India and also better our position..I just dont know how to reply to this though...