A television series, ‘The Real Marigold Hotel’ which shows India as a great place to retire for the British old-age pensioners sparked off an interesting debate while I was in Delhi recently. The BBC series followed the day to day existence of eight former British celebrities as they participate in a month long mock retirement in a haveli in Jaipur. It ends up highlighting how conditions in India would be far more amendable for senior citizens as compared to those in today’s Britain.

Barring pollution and sanitation, India is a touristic delight. There is so much history and the state has seen to it that nearly each one of the hundreds of historical sites have excellent accommodation for visitors, not only in the five star hotels, but in modestly priced guest houses as well. No wonder the number of tourists to India from all over the world keeps increasing every year.

The one great advantage for pensioners is the first-rate private health-care facilities that now exist in India. The National Health scheme in Britain has received serious blows at the hands of successive Tory -- and Labour -- governments. There are now long queues of patients. In India you can get treatment for almost all ailments at a cost which is seven times less than what you would pay in Britain. The pound can stretch very far.

‘Medical tourism’ has achieved a huge boost in India in recent years. Apart from Hindi and English they now have signs in Arabic as well. Another charm for the elderly Brits, who have been abandoned by their children, is the community-centric society of India. They can also derive comfort from the fact that by and large people show respect for the elderly people. The tourism department is actively promoting what they call ‘Medical Tourism’. You can have your Orthopaedic treatment, then see the Taj Mahal and the mysterious caves of Marabar. India, it claims, is an excellent destination for Western citizens to retire. The government is being urged to issue long-term old-age visas.

Not everyone agrees with this view. "India is no country for the old", says Amalya Gopalakrishnan. He contends that it is a misconception to think that families provide life-long care to their elderly. Often they can’t or don’t want to. It’s a harsh world for the elderly. "As for the excellent facilities of the healthcare," he writes, "there is a vast deficit of medical professionals. Geriatric care is not a worthwhile speciality in India -- there is no supporting infrastructure in terms of companionship or home visits. Why would any British retiree leave the state-funded healthcare and put himself at India’s mercy?"

Mr Gopalakrishnan is perhaps not aware of the state-funded healthcare in England today. Eight out of ten pensioners would tell him that the hospitals are over-crowded, the staff, on the whole, is indifferent, if not downright surly, and in some cases they have to pay for individual ailments.

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Hinduism, I have always understood is not a religion in the sense in which Islam or Christianity or Judaism is a religion, because it doesn’t have a codified belief system as such. And yet there is a lot of codification prescribed by various sects: how to dress, how to bathe, how to eat, what to eat, how to make penance, how to purify yourself.

My late friend Amar Raj Lall was a philosopher. It was his view that one is most Hindu when least a Hindu. I suppose he meant that you are a true Hindu when you have dissolved your Hindu particularity into the all-embracing inclusiveness of Hinduism.

Freedom of speech and the related issue of tolerance has been a subject of debate ever since the Modi government came into power -- at least in the English press. The arrest of the President of the student’s union in Jawarhalal Nehru University on charges of sedition made headlines while I was in Delhi. I found it most refreshing to read that many thinkers and writers took up the issue of the current wave of intolerance in the country and condemn it in a lucid, well-argued manner.

The movie-star Anupam Kher, for example, had been exceptionally sensitive to any criticism about the rising intolerance in a forum. The logic of people like Mr Kher is that since in the ancient past India was (arguably) not racist, she cannot be racist today. They dismiss the horrid incident like stripping a Tanzanian student in public on a street in Bengaluru simply because she was black, as an isolated incident of road rage.

Mr Pavan Verma, a member of the Rajiya Sabha, has written a brilliant piece about the movie-star’s stance. "People like Mr Kher believe," he writes, "that criticism of any kind of intolerance is tantamount to denying the greatness of Hindu civilization. To question or interrogate anything happening today is seen as denunciatory of past achievements and, therefore smacking of ingratitude and disloyalty almost equivalent to social treason".

The Hindus have not, as a matter of historical record, been hostile to other faiths but the practice of Hinduism has been tainted by the prejudice -- and violence -- inflicted by higher caste Hindus against the untouchables (now known as Dalits). In recent times the fundamentalist Hindus have been seriously concerned that Hinduism is being threatened and therefore deliberate incitement of hatred for the Muslims and other minorities is justifiable.

The Hindus that I had a chance to meet during my recent visit are thoroughly disgusted about this trend. They are appalled that Hinduism which has existed in a remarkably self-assured way should be so mutilated. To quote Pavan Varma, "Today we have band of largely illiterate and lumpen elements forever seeking to prescribe formulas to ‘protect’ Hinduism and in the process devaluing both the religion and its adherents."

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My knowledge of South Indian food has been confined to an Idli and a dossa and, of course thesambre, the tangy daal the taste of which is enhanced by the tiny brass bowl in which it is served. It was, therefore, a very pleasant surprise to be treated to genuine South Indian cuisine at a place called Dakhsin, reputedly the beat South Indian restaurant in Delhi.

The fish in a white creamy coconut sauce was absolutely divine. The chicken (I am not overly fond of chicken) in a pale orange sauce was yummy. The Rasam, a delicately flavoured soup-cum-appetiser, with a palatable mixture of chat masala that my tongue had not been familiar with was superb. A bite of the uttapam a crunchy paratha doused in the sambre and you are in the fifth if not the sixth heaven.