Today marks the halfway point of my trip to India! 70 days down, 70 to go. I have become hypnotized by this country, which constantly has something new to present: a new food to try, a new place to get lost in, a new dilemma to solve. I was reading a book I purchased here, The Accidental Apprentice, by Vikas Swarup, and one of the characters says that India "only adds, never subtracts." This is one of the truest ways you can describe India. You see the old culture side-by-side with the new. Sometimes it is literally side-by-side, seeing 12th century Mughal ruins as you ascend from a 21st century metro. Other times, it is the contrast of a woman wearing jeans a t-shirt walking past a woman wearing a full sari, her face covered. Sometimes it is wandering from a high-class neighborhood with fancy cars into a windy alleyway with open sewage and cows roaming about. Or it is choosing between a lunch of aloo gobi and roti from a street vendor or a cheese pizza from Dominoes. India is a fascinating amalgam of histories, religions, cultures and classes. Although I never had a concrete reason for choosing to come to this place, I most definitely have a reason for staying: to continue to explore this chaotic, beautiful, loud, intoxicating country.
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