What a throroughly ridiculous comment. Indian people leave their homeland because the airports are busy? If anything, a busy international airport would deter people from travelling.

And what are you trying to do by wrapping the word 'country' in double quotes? It certainly seems like you are insinuating that India is somehow not a country - something I find extremely offensive.

So please, next time you feel the need to be insightful, reconsider.

Back on topic:
Flying out of any Indian airport, particularly DEL, i will always arrive with 4 hours to spare, as a zero-status economy class traveller. I have most experience with BOM and i have noticed over the past few trips a large fluctuation in time taken to complete formalities. For this reason, its always better to be safe than sorry, particularly as if worse comes to worse and i miss my flight; im much less likely to be helped in India than elsewhere in the world.

Also, whatever one has to gain by arriving later at the airport (longer lunch, sleep in, watching tv, etc) is much less than what i have to potentially lose by NOT turning up early - missing my flight. So i bite the bullet, set my alarm and more often than not spend quite a while sitting around reading a book :-)