India ~ Fact or Fiction?

We leave for India in ONE day. I made the decision about one week ago to stop reading Internet articles about India because I was scaring myself out of traveling anywhere but to the local store. I read about the customs officials at the airport attempting to extort money from unsuspecting people - just your run of the mill bribery. Fact or fiction? I have read numerous reports which are very disturbing about dowries and bride burning. Laws have been passed in India to protect women from this type of atrocity so is it fact or fiction? I ended my Internet reading when I was reading about the type of toilets they use in India ~ which are quite different from those here in the USA. It was the part about bribing monkeys with a banana so they will clean your backside since toilet paper is not used ~ that made me quit the Internet cold turkey. Fact or fiction? I don't care ~ I can assure you that no monkey is coming near my bum.

Now here are some facts about India. It is the 7th largest country in the world. There are 28 states in India. Hyderabad, where we will be staying, is in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad is known as the City of Pearls. The temperature today in Hyderabad was 90 degrees while it was only 40 degrees here. There are over one billion people in India while the USA has over 300 million people. Below is a link to a Youtube video about Hyderbad which I would like to share with you:
Amazing Hyderabad

And I will end with a few more facts. I love my daughter dearly and unconditionally. That is a fact. She has made the decision to marry a man from another country but from the same world. I support her decision ~ all facts. Will they have issues due to the differences in their cultures? Probably. Do all married couples ever have issues to work through? Definitely. Another fact is that yesterday a business associate of my husband felt the need to tell us that if my daughter and her fiancee ever have children and then if they have marital issues, her Indian husband will "grab the kid and run back to India and you will never see your grandchild again." Thanks, Ray. I am sure custody issues never occur in the United States. Then today a local real estate agent came to our office and I was telling her about our daughter's upcoming wedding in India. She leaned over my desk and said, "Well, I am sure you've heard about the man who set fire to his daughter-in-law because she was from Canada. I think the man was from India. He didn't agree with the marriage." For once, I was at a loss for words.
Tomorrow we leave for India. I am going to treasure each moment and have the adventure of a lifetime. I am going to look for the good in India and its people. I will watch my beautiful daughter get married to the man she loves. I will be teary ~ and that is a fact.