The Real Marigold Hotel

Just watching the recording. It is clearly very contrived; but it is interesting to see the scenery etc. Let us hope it does not just become a sort of Indian big brother.

Bobby George looks as though he is at death's door - I hope the heat and the squits do not finish him off!

I think the squits would get me down [-grin]
(my own, I mean)

sorry,

If you enjoy the occasional glass of wine with an evening meal, the relative lack of it could prove to be a stumbling block if you're thinking of retiring there.

I met MM when she gave a reading at our library and she was great fun, a real one off.

I really enjoyed it too. I liked the chap who was the darts player - I thought he made some very insightful remarks.

My husband went to India for the first time a few years ago and found it quite a culture shock and not as he had expected. He hadn't realised that Delhi has such a cold winter or that the air quality is so bad. I have never been keen to go because almost everyone I know who has been there has been ill. I don't have much of a spirit of adventure!

My Indian friends all say that the heat at the height of summer is absolutely unbearable. I don't think I could stand it. I don't think I would want to live somewhere where the gap between rich and poor is so overwhelmingly unjust.

The celebrities on the programme weren't really that old and yet several of them seemed to be very overweight and in quite poor health. I'm wondering whether it might be quite dangerous to be exposed to such high temperatures when you're carrying all that extra weight.

Jalima Why would there be a relative lack of a glass of wine or have I misunderstood your post?

In the days of the Raj, British families decamped to cooler regions during the summer months so if you have the means to retire to another country why would you choose somewhere that's stiflingly hot?

The idea of the programme is they sample the retired life, they're not pretending that they've retired there.

I doubt if they're all wealthy. MM definitely is and Bobby, Wayne, Patti and Sylvester are probably pretty comfortably off. But I doubt if Jan is and we heard Rosemary say she could not afford to retire yet. Not sure about Roy, but I suspect most of them see it as a free holiday.

Eloethan The average age is 73 and Rosemary is the youngest at 65. Bobby used to be enormous and lost weight years ago on a reality show about celebrities dieting (DH watched it), but he's put some back on. I thought Jan looked quite frail when they were outside. They don't look the healthiest bunch of oldies!

merlotgran some Indian states ban alcohol altogether and I don't think wine drinking is very widespread so I suppose you could buy it but perhaps it wouldn't be that easy to come by.
I expect rich furriners could source some decent Merlot and they could afford it!

Jan lived near us many years ago and she had a nice but fairly ordinary cottage - and a very snazzy sports car!
DH used to say 'ooh, that's Jan Leeming in front of us'! and speed up a bit.
Very glamorous. (Unlike me).

Patti Boulaye is the youngest at 61.

Thanks for correcting me rubylady, I must have misheard. I thought the narrator said Rosemary was the youngest at 65. Mind you, I want to call Rosemary Audrey for some reason, so there's no hope!

You're welcome Wilma

Where son lives alcohol isn't exactly banned - there's a posh hotel there where you can buy beer and wine, but at a price, and most people are too poor .
What is easily available though are drugs like tranquillisers and sleeping tablets, there was a small kiosk in the village where you could get those without prescription. Which I was glad of - I slept badly at first, a sleeping tablet sorted that out.

I have got a bottle of Indian wine in the rack for my next wine tasting group. Got it from M&S. Looking forward to trying it.

Thought MM was great. Agree with comments about Patti Boule. Thought that she had far too many glamorous clothes for India. The colour and photography were great and I ejoyed it immensely but would not like to retire there away from my wonderful six grandchildren!

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and really liked Rosemary, I think she could turn out to be good fun, MM disappointed me, I didn't like her refusal to pitch in with the chores, or her not wanting to share, I'll be interested to watch the next episode, and thought some of the scenery was beautiful. Maybe I should visit (in the cooler months of course)

I couldn't bear to live anywhere that has such a difference in the 'haves' and the 'have nots'!

Me neither Juggernaut I am not sure I could even enjoy a holiday where such extremes were evident all around me.

I think that young guide saying how hard it was for someone of "his caste" to get a job as a tour guide just sums that up. Horribly racist.

Yes Ana, I really did understand that the celebrities had no intention of retiring to India - that was exactly why I questioned the whole enterprise.
If the programme makers had funded half a dozen, cash-strapped
OAPs to experience how they might be able to support themselves in that beautiful, but flawed society, we might have learned something worthwhile.
What we got was a gaggle of celebs on a paid Holliday. Yet another celebrity travelogue.
I wonder if the Maharaja and his lady wife would have invited, (to take tea with them) a group of ordinary OAPs who were considering retirement in India?
I doubt it.
The programme was a cynical exercise in hooking itself onto a film, popular with oldies.
There was never any intention of discovering , as we were informed it would be, what retirement could be
like for ordinary older folk,who having enjoyed the film, wondered if it might, just, be possible.

I have been to India many, many times and I just love it. I was married to an Indian who was brought up under the Raj and he saw a very different India to the one I got to know. He along with other Indians thought the worst thing the British did was to leave. And still there is a huge legacy of the Raj - not always good, but in general we are very welcome there, I never had any problems with the Indians, quite the opposite. I find it very embarrassing to be pulled to the head of queues just because I was a white Memsahib!

I didn't see the programme, but love the two films and the book they are based on. It is very typical of many parts of today's India. Many of the locations are in palace hotels that I have stayed in and thoroughly enjoyed being waited on.

and Leonora you are wrong to sneer at those who love this way of life. The one thing we Westerners can do is to be there and spend money, employ local labour even for the most menial task. It's peanuts to us in comparison, and not to do this is denying a whole extended family food for a week. It can get very annoying at times, but please don't deny them a livelihood.

Mark Tully - BBC correspondent for India - once said when asked how he coped with the poverty 'I don't - the poor do'.

I could wax lyrical for hours about this country I know well (I think) and love. It is very diverse and pervades the senses in every way. It's not all unbearable heat, especially in the North, and in Simla where my ex was brought up the temperature doesn't often go above 65F in summer. I would have loved to have had the chance to live there for a few years, but India is hard work so I don't think I would want to retire there on a permanent basis. So I'll stick with France.

I've just realised, I don't think it's realistic to plan to retire there because of the visa system, which is very strict. Even our son, who has a job there, has to return to the UK every few years to renew his visa.
Maybe if you married someone with an Indian passport?

I watched it last night and was fascinated. I saw the movie too which I really enjoyed. Bit hectic on the streets - but so colourful and lively. Definitely watch the following episodes.