"Search for Imperfection" India by Romanian_Bat

I started on the way to India with a single image in my mind: that of a flowing river laughing at me, like in Hesse's novel. And it is exactly what I found there, while walking along the ghats in Varanasi or through the many fragrance-filled chowks in various cities: a river carrying a whole universe with it: happiness and sorrow, noisy motorbikes, gracious women wearing colourful sarees, leper-struck beggars in Delhi, flowers thrown in the Ganges, slow-paced rickshaws, Jainist temples, tasty pakhoras, ashes coming from cremated corpses of the rich, uncremated corpses of the poor, a man cooking chapati on a basic stove on the sidewalk, an almost initiatic local train ride from Gorakhpur to Varanasi...

Selling sparkles of heaven - Jaisalmer

Disregarding of what I had ever expected to see or experience in India, this country was captivating not through its monuments and old buildings, but rather through its people, busy streets and life beat. More than anything, the very interference with the one next to me, whether on a train, bus or in the street, was a great experience, showing how much we sometimes miss being natural, just because we tend to search for perfection instead of being happy with our being... imperfect. This is what I enjoyed mostly in India: its being natural, winding instead of straight, slow instead of fast; because this is the very essence of human nature.

Frying bread with a smile, Jaipur

In a remote town or on the train or plane, one cannot ignore the one next to him / her, because the people in India make up the most fascinating part of visiting the country. Peasant women sitting down on a wagon floor with their whole family, next to large sacks of cereals they were taking to town, could not have worn their otherwise poor sarees or rough cloth outfits with more elegance and dignity. Whether on a train, in a shop or simply in the street, people could not have approached the stranger in a less formal way. Contrasts could not have struck me in a more natural, familiar almost, manner, where things are not expected to be one way or the other, they simply happen.

More on my trip to India in the attached travelogues hereunder.

• Pros:A captivating country, where one cannot escape being grabbed by the river.
• In a nutshell:An experience one cannot return after as he/she left for.