Shock awaited a group of South Korean students at a cultural exchange programme held in the City on Tuesday.
All that the organiser, Nehru Yuva Kendra, Bangalore, had to show the Korean students was poverty-stricken students in a shabbily maintained government school at Srinagar.
While one wondered at the choice of the school, others were astonished by the chaos at the event.
The foreign visitors entered the premises only to be greeted by barefoot students who lined up wearing dirty clothes, and with dishevelled hair.
The stage where the programme was held had the cement surface peeled off and the play material for the students were rusted and broken. The school apparently had no instructions as how to prepare for the foreign guests.
Shockingly, no cultural event by the Indian students was in the itinerary for a foreign team on the cultural exchange programme.
At the fag end of the event, a girl performed Bharatanatyam while three boys recited music.
The Korean students performed a martial art and dance programme.
Principal Secretary of Youth and Services Department I R Perumal told the Korean students that India is well-protected with Himalayas in the north where “seers perform tapasya (penance)”, and oceans protect the land in the east, west and south.
Lee Dahora from Daejon told Deccan Herald that she found the country a bit too different where people delay too much.
“In our country credit cards are issued within an hour and money is returned if a flight is delayed even by an hour. Here people delay too much, but still there is no complaint. This is the difference I noticed between our country and India,” said Dahora.