Lonely Planet showed me the true India

My family is from India but like most Indians knew little about the country other than their native region. I phoned my mum, telling her I was in Karnataka. She'd never heard of it - one of India's largest states, with 70 million people. Lonely Planet gave me a better grasp of the complex scale of India than two Punjabi parents.

I'd thought that trip would be a homecoming but instead I was confronted with how completely British I am. My outlook, shaped by growing up in London, jarred with India. Not that Indians cared; to them, I was just another brown face amid a billion others. They were far more interested in my white-skinned counterparts.

Without the Lonely Planet guide, I'd have been lost and stuck with the other travellers trapped by their nerves and ignorance into seeking out places where they feel secure. They spend weeks smoking dope on English-speaking Goan beaches rather than take the five-hour train ride to see the temple ruins at Hampi. Or they hide in five-star hotels rather than mix with ordinary people who'll share something of their lives with them.

They often treat locals as shysters who only want to rip them off. Nothing is more distasteful than seeing Westerners haggling over pennies with some of the poorest people on Earth. Hippies are the worst. Wearing ethnic fabrics and Om tattoos, they flaunt their comparative affluence, speaking rudely and bossing the locals simply because they've paid them a few rupees. Thinking that the money they spend allows them to offend the local culture, they openly take drugs and conduct their sex lives indiscreetly. No one is more selfish and materialistic than those treading the tie-dyed path to enlightenment.

That's not so say all the backpackers I met were arrogant or insensitive: I made some lasting friendships. And all travellers to India are enriched by their experiences, with or without the aid of a good guidebook. Even when I think of the morons I met, I remind myself they'd probably be more unbearable if they hadn't made the journey.