Humans, cows, pigs, and monkeys, rubbish, pollution, dirt everywhere…temples, open markets, endless motion: a chaos by itself in a strange harmony of its own; a shock to the senses…Harsh light, high themperatures, odours; curry succeeded by rotten matter, and then in just a few seconds dung switching into spices again, and then the frangipani flowers..dust everywhere, people driving like crazy-endlessly honking their horns. This is India; a strain to the eye (impossible to fit so sudden alterations of beauty and harshness), a strain to the ear (impossible to deal with the frenzy of noise pollution), a strain to the nose (impossible to tolerate the storming of odours)…and then the people: always smiley – sometimes curious, always gentle and noble in their own way, always humil. Once you strip yourself of your defense mechanisms, you come to realise how little you truly know, and how much there is to learn about this world!
