For those of you who’ve been wondering about the outcome of my traipsing all over Kerala and Uttarakhand with Mahindra Homestays, here it is. The first Mahindra Homestays advertorials have been published in two Indian magazines — Outlook and India Today Travel Plus. And yes, the homestay experience really is as good as what the pictures show! India is an amazing place.
Advertorial in Outlook magazine, 15 March 2010 edition.
First page of advertorial in India Today Travel Plus magazine, March 2010 edition.
Second page of advertorial in India Today Travel Plus magazine, March 2010 edition
Third page of advertorial in India Today Travel Plus magazine, March 2010 edition.
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Congratulations, Sharell! The pictures are really good, and you look so pretty
Yup
The pics are good!
Who’s the guy? Why didn’t they use your husband?
Thanks Nadia!
Desiderata, he’s my faux husband.
They wanted foreigners for the campaign, I think to give it an international focus because it will be launched internationally. We agreed to divorce as soon as the work was over! 
Oh, so cool! They look great! (and sounds so good I want to stay!)
Awwww…. you look pretty and congrats
Hey Sharell… oh you look wonderful. Congrats on the payoff of all the hard work. It seems to have been worth it
Do you know if India Today Travel Plus offers subscriptions outside of India (USA). I looked into it and saw the subscription form link but it seems to be for the newspaper and I’m not sure if it would include the magazine as well. I’m trying to subscribe to a good magazine for India traveling (although your blog is an excellent resource as well
).
Any suggestions? Thanks!!
Hi B, thanks so much!!
And here’s the link to India Today Travel Plus: http://www.indiatodayplus.com/
However, my tip is to subscribe to Outlook Traveller. I have a subscription myself. It’s a great resource and comes out every month. It’s also a bit cheaper than India Today Travel Plus, and it focuses almost solely on India travel.
http://travel.outlookindia.com/ And the link to subscribe: http://119.82.71.58/sfa/newsubtravel.asp If you scroll down you’ll see an option for international subscriptions.
Absolutely Awsome. These places look too good. Sometimes I wonder, India is so beautiful (wish our cities affirmed the same).
Eagerly waiting for your book. It will be a big hit (I can predict).
I am very inspired by your life. You listened to you heart and life has been very meaningful. I do know, India can present a lot of challenges in terms of materialistic life; however, there is something magical about it. Its tastes, sounds, conflicts, people all make it an unique experience. Probably this is the reason many “NRI’s” are returning back to India after living in the West for 10 – 20 years and leaving their “Permanent Residency” and even in many cases “Citizenship” of western work back.
It is rightly said “Home is where the heart is”
Sharell you are no longer a “foreigner” you are one among us
Thanks so much Akash…. I definitely should say a gori because I don’t feel like a foreigner here. And I don’t even like being referred to as one!
For sure, India is something very magical and special to people who can appreciate and understand what there is, and look past all the challenges. I’ve been so fortunate to visit so many magnificent places. They almost are too good to be true! And I love how there is always something more to discover. It makes me so happy to be able to share it with everyone.
Yes well you and your real husband are a way cuter couple.
Sorry if this turns into double post but I was having issues with my internet this afternoon. I love the photos they are breath taking that place looks so peaceful and fun all in the sametime. I hope that you are able to do more photos for this place it’s beautyful.
@@ Sharell,
You are surely going to get more business with this amazing pictures.
@@ desiderata,
This is an inherent form of racist mentality most people possess not to show ‘inter-racial’ couples as ‘normal couples’. I am not sorry to disagree her, Sharell as in fact, theoretically, ‘inter-racial’ couples seem ‘more international or multicultural’. However, vast majority of people (this includes majority of great ‘whites’ who hypocritically rattle about ‘multiculturalism’) always want to see ‘inter-cultural relationships’ as tiny minority. Showing such couples on a front page may be a big turn-off for their respective market. This is a fact, a bitter truth.
Post-modern North American and British White people are by far the largest majority to engage in inter-racial and inter-cultural marriage, dating and sex than any other group on the planet.
Sharell,
One thing thats puzzled me is how come you being from Australia and staying in Bombay, you never mention about cricket or have any other cricket posts. i wonder if you started hating cricket from the onset.
I was wondering if you would be interested to write a post for me (lloking at your acitvities) you are quite busy or would like to mention about my blog on your blog sometime and add as a blogroll.
How about with IPL 2010 starting soon?
my blog link is : http://uscricketer.wordpress.com/
Thanks
Great work! you are a natural in front of the camera.
I’m sure the campaign will be a great success with many more to follow. Just let me know if you need a personal assistant, I’d be happy to do the job. I’ll even be more than happy to tag along on those great Mahindra adventures.
Just love your blog! I wonder if some of the places you’ve done travel writing for would be open to you polishing up the English and information presentation on their sites. It would be worth it to them.
@@ Sharell’s Celebrity Doppelganger – “…Post-modern North American and British White people are by far the largest majority to engage in inter-racial and inter-cultural marriage, dating and sex than any other group on the planet…”
Oh yah?? Some reality check for you. Inter-cultural/racial relationships have been common everywhere. Look at yourself (Indians), we come in every size and color. We are as mixed as any other culture for ages, and I may even say, we are more mixed than western Europeans as one culture. The only difference is , this process has been more natural in India with a lot of coexistent racism as opposed to a ‘human-made project’ of multiculturalism in the west.
Please. Indians are NOT from different “racial” backgrounds.
Hi USCricketer, instead of me starting to hate cricket, the truth is I’ve actually just never liked it or paid any attention to it. I’m not a very typical Australian, in that I don’t have a mad sports loving mentality. I’m just not interested in sports, including AFL (Aussie Rules Football).
@SharellscelebrityDoppleganger
“Post-modern North American and British White people are by far the largest majority to engage in inter-racial and inter-cultural marriage, dating and sex than any other group on the planet.”
You are probably right, unless you count the numerous interracial relationships between slave owners and slaves or the pre- Cornwallis era British India where British were freely marrying Indian (mostly British men marrying Indian women). That said, I think your point: there are more interracial and inter cultural couples in the US and UK than anywhere else in the world.
However, I would argue that even in the postmodern US, main stream ads prefer couples from the same race. We may have come a long way from the days of Jim Crow, but we as a society are still eons away from accepting of an inter cultural couples as normal. Although, to take a Gandhian view, inter cultural couples have it better than same sex couples (this seems to be true in India as well. Real Sharell, please correct me if am off about this).
Interracial couples ARE normal in the United States, and especially in the UK. It’s very common in the UK and quite common in the US.
Not saying that I agree with it, but it’s common and normal…
It’s definitely not normal or acceptable in India!
I wouldn’t say that inter racial common in the US. I think the exact number is some where under 10% of the total number of couples. I am not sure what you mean by normal though. Is it is the public perception, or in some sort of absolute sense. If it is public perception, I don’t think it is considered normal. There is still the weird looks people give, Chanel baby etc. Heck people don’t want to be reminded that Obama is a product of inter cultural relationship.
That said, I do think that future lies in that direction. At some point there isn’t much else to do to increase genetic diversity.
True true. However, it is silly to draw judgements from this commercial, where Sharell is just a model doing her job.
I’d like to see you bring up any hard evidences to back this up. But of course, I know well enough not to expect any.
Of course, if you subscribe to the philosophy that all humans belong to the ‘human race’. Otherwise, by the conventional definition of races, Indians indeed belong several racial backgrounds.
Her experience with reality is way too feeble to be able to cash a reality check. It would bounce.
Bad, bad, bad.
Sharell,
I know that same sex couples are not considered normal or accepted in India, I am pretty sure it is still illegal to be one. I was curious about the status of inter cultural couples vs same sex couples in the present day Mumbai. Who fares better in terms of social acceptance?
Oh, I would say inter cultural couples fare much better. The law against same sex couples was repealed last year in the Delhi High Court, so technically it’s not illegal anymore (at least in that jurisdiction).
@@ Sharrell’s Celebrity Doppleganger – “…Interracial couples ARE normal in the United States, and especially in the UK…”
It’s normal compare to it’s in India. But the question is, how many of such couples are out there? According to statistics, only 2-3 % of whites are involved in inter-racial marriages through out the west (2.2% U.S, 2.0% U.K, 3.2 % Canada). Let’s say many whites who are inter-racial couples break up and not reach marriage, even then I would put the figure not more than 10%. It means, 90% of whites are not too comfortable with ‘inter-racial’ marriages or affairs. Do you call it “normal” ?
@@ Abdullah K – “…it is silly to draw judgements from this commercial, where Sharell is just a model doing her job…”
Of course, we must blame (or give credit to) the God for His excellent (or faulty) design.
@@ YAIRS – “…I wouldn’t say that inter racial common in the US. I think the exact number is some where under 10% of the total number of couples…”
You are very close to the fact.
I like the Close to Home picture the best! They are all amazing anyways.
Congratulations sharrell
I think the pictures are great.
i am gonna grab a copy of outlook and show it to my mom
I would like to ask you, are u a little camera conscious?
Thanks Ramit! I was standing in a gutter for that pic to appear shorter than my “husband”!
Shashi, I’m self conscious in general and am not natural model material at all.
There are many issues with interracial and intercultural couples, so although it is not uncommon for White people of Euro descent to go that route, I would not neccessarily recommend it.
I’d thought they’d have found a taller husband for you. By the way, is it your height that makes you self conscious?
The guy who was supposed to come couldn’t, so they rounded this “husband” up at the last minute!
My height makes me more self conscious in India, but I’ve just always been that way anyhow. I can’t blame it on my height because I’m not unusually tall back in Oz. I think it’s just my personality!
Actually, you look as the extroverted person in the pictures. Your ‘husband’ looks more like a clueless tourist and you as the one who is actually into the scene. I wouldn’t have known you as a self-conscious person if you hadn’t replied to Sashi’s comment.
Anyway I’ve observed that women who are taller than average are quite self-conscious about their height. My sister who lives in France for example, feels very conscious being taller than most of the people in the country.
Ms Doppleganger,
Are you recommending not to pursue an inter cultural relationship because of the challenges that it presents?
YAIRS, my opinion is that if the cultures are too different, and the people involved are really invested in their cultures, than it will be extremely difficult for the two to get along, and just not WORTH it.
Especially when it comes to gender roles and expectations. I’ve seen many intercultural marriages end in divorce because of just this one issue, what to speak of others.
If you wanna just have fun and date short-term, go for it. But for the long haul – I don’t recommend two people from extremely different (even opposing) cultures to invest their entire lives in each other.
Multi-culturalism is not faring very well in places like Holland, who are allowing people from OPPOSING cultures to immigrant en masse. By “opposing” I mean their cultural values are vastly different, even opposite, to the cultural values of the place they are migrating to.
Holland is OK with public nudity, but yet they are importing people from cultures who think women should be completely covered from head to toe all the time.
Now if that isn’t a recipe for disaster, I don’t know what is.
Culture clashes happen for a reason, they don’t just arise out of a vacuum.
I think whether or not something is worth it is up to the individual. Whatever happened to the American idealism. If itsn’t your cup of tea, that is fine. I don’t think you can advice people based on anecdotal evidence. I am sure you are aware of sample bias and such.
Personally, neither my family nor I have had any issues that are purely a product of our culture when it comes to my relationships (with women from the East or the West). I was raised to be colorblind and inclusive, may be that has helped.
Invoking the issues in the Netherlands is just confounding the analysis, so I don’t think that is relevant.
@@ YAIRS – “…I was raised to be colorblind and inclusive, may be that has helped…”
If you are colorblind, that would not necessarily eliminate ‘differences’ – personal, regional, racial or cultural. Cultural or racial differences just fuel the presumed or existing differences. Do you think all the differences and conflicts in the world are just based on color? Do you think it’s so easy to be inclusive? Of course, it’s much easy to claim to be “inclusive”.
YAIRS, of course it is up to the individual to decide. I am only expressing my opinion based on my own personal experiences and the personal experiences of my family members and friends, who, if we had to do it all over again, would not.
You ask: Whatever happened to the American idealism.
IT’S OVERRATED.
It wouldn’t be a disaster if it is made quite clear to the immigrants that they should comply with the host culture, not the other way round. However, there are political lobbies who want to play the ‘immigrants are victims’ card and force the Dutch to submission in their own country. Multiculturalism has been failure in countries with populist governments.
@Amit Desai,
I try my best to be inclusive. I am sure I fail sometimes, when I do, I reassess and figure out a way to not repeat the same mistakes.
I am happily married to some one from a very different culture. However, we do have pretty much the same values, goals and aspirations. Oddly, we were raised in eerily similar environment. i.e. Our parents had very similar ideas as to how their kids should be raised. So I am a big proponent of the idea that similar values matters the most in a relationship than anything else.
YAIRS, I agree, values matter most. However sometimes cultures have opposing values, I see it all the time. When an individual is highly invested in their culture and buys into it hook, line and sinker, that is where the issues arise, if they are in a relationship with someone from a differering culture who buys into their own culture just as strongly, and the two cultures have differing value system, or even value systems that strongly oppose one another.
Doppleganger,
Accepting your premise, people who are not hung up on their own culture ought to be able to make an inter cultural relationship work, right. Why then the blanket advice to avoid them?
Before I moved to the US, most of the “goris” in my town (mostly french) had this very “pardesi” (foreign in my book anyway) outlook on life. However, I have found plenty of liberal, liberated and what not women in the US whose values are very much in line with that of mine. So may be every one has the right to make up their own mind?
“So may be every one has the right to make up their own mind?”
Of course they do!
Perhaps you are an Indian man who’s mother is dead, or who is not as attached to and controlled by his mother as all of the other ones that I know and the ones who have married my friends. That seems to be the biggest issue when dealing with a Desi guy – his Mom and her expectations of participation in his life, including living with him.
The situations detailed at this “advice” site parrallel not only my personal experiences, but those of several women dear to me as well;
motherinlawhell dot com forwardslash category forwardslash advice forwardslash indian dash daughter dash in dash law forwardslash
(since we cannot post links in comments i spelled it out for you, however if you click on my moniker it should direct you there as well)
“So may be every one has the right to make up their own mind?”
Of course they do!
Perhaps you are an Indian man who’s mother is dead, or who is not as attached to and controlled by his mother as all of the other ones that I know and the ones who have married my friends. That seems to be the biggest issue when dealing with a Desi guy – his Mom and her expectations of participation in his life, including living with him.
The situations detailed at this “advice” site parrallel not only my personal experiences, but those of several women dear to me as well;
motherinlawhell dot com forwardslash category forwardslash advice forwardslash indian dash daughter dash in dash law forwardslash
(since we cannot post links in comments i spelled it out for you)
What the hell is that?!
Abdullah K. – “…What the hell is that?!…”
That’s MIL plus plus. An old version of DIL plus plus.
nice work sharrell! i worked at ittp not so long ago