No one feels neutral about India. It slams you in the face with heat, spice and dirt, then seduces you with colour and sensual pleasure. Time distorts and assumes surreal yogic contortions: distances take longer to travel, minutes crawl during interminable waits, then vanish into a blur of hours, even days. The constant chaos can charm or repulse.
There are so many different facets of India: the 29 states and seven Union Territories, including the National Capital Territory of Delhi, offer a bewildering number of travel options. Trekking to Adivasi villages in the Western Ghats is a physical challenge; whilst. chugging across the Deccan Plateau in a three-tiered sleeper car while the other passengers snore is a mental one. The pride of an artisan working at a potter’s wheel or loom is obvious; the appeal of rural villages trimmed with intricate murals is unforgettable.
Riding an elephant on the beach, Havelock Island.
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Visit an old Portuguese fort or an ancient Jewish synagogue. Take refuge in a remote pleasure palace a full day’s camel ride away from the rest of the world. Barter in a bazaar for old silver, new rugs, inlaid daggers, or go for the miniature paintings brushed with a squirrel’s whisker, the antique opium boxes, or new jewellery made with crushed gemstones: it’s all spread out before your eyes in a former caravanserai.
A Bengal tiger.
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Other visitors come to India seeking something within themselves, some spiritual calm beyond the cacophony. Some enrol in meditation centres, others opt for social or environmental work, either can teach you something more about yourself.
India’s travel experiences can be similarly uplifting, from boating down a river where elephants bathe, to the colour and spectacle of an esoteric religious festival. White-water rafting down the Ganges, practising yoga on a sunrise beach, tracking wildlife in game sanctuaries, climbing a Himalayan peak, sketching wildflowers in a hill station meadow, or examining erotic sculpture at Tantric temples: it would need immense stamina to undertake all the travel possibilities in India.
Some run away from India; others keep returning.
Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
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