Masala Remix

In the 10 countries i've been to in the past 7 months not one has been as open, unapologetic, and direct in displaying its way of life. In most of the countries i've visited you had to make an effort to get a glimpse of the 'real' world, the culture, the people and to partake in it. Not India - here you're immersed in it from day 1. Everything around you is a cultural attack on the senses - the smells of spices, incense, fumes, urine, all mix up into a masala, your eyes are blinded by the vibrant colors of saris, turbins, temples. Then there are the sounds - the sweet beckoning of a bamboo bansuri, the gyrating beats of the latest remixed bollywood track from a passing rickshaw, to the prayer calls from the nearby mosque. The tastes i can talk and have talked about numerous times - the hot fiery saabzis, sweet milky chais, refreshing sugarcane and lime juices... and some how Touch is not left out - there's the constant interaction with every human being around you, the soft brush of a sari's palu, the hot wind as inches away from you a taxi whizzes by, there's the grit and dust in the air that coats you as soon as you step out of the shower, the cold marble floors that cool your feet as you enter a mandir...

and finally there's the affect all of this has on you - the speed in which you can feel pure joy and freedom while hanging out the sides of the coromondel express along the gloriously green coast to the heartbreak every time you see a undernourished, underdeveloped child - begging for money, weeding through garbage hoping one of us has foolishly left some morsels in our plate of bhelpuri

At times you can feel overwhelmed, unable to handle so much so quickly - but somehow you manage and soon enough find you're enjoying yourself despite it all because more than anything India makes you aware of how alive you are, how real things are and how lucky it is to be you.