India

How to capture India? I walk the streets (Mysore is great for this) and I see/hear/smell familiarity. Even though I've been in this country less than a week, it is so much a part of my soul. All my life I'd heard stories and read books and saw movies and documentaries about this country - my motherland. It doesn't surprise me to see cows along the roads in the city center and to see people eating dosas that they bought from the roadside vendors and typists typing out letters from old fashioned typewriters and the rickshaws squeezing between smoky old buses. Crowds, noise, heat (yes, heat and it's midwinter!), odors, chaos, chaos. Yet, so much to enjoy. Today we went to Mysore's enormous produce market. What a feast for the senses. Colors, fragrances, fresh fruit, many, many kinds of vegetables, flowers, mounds of spices, bunches upon bunches upon bunches of bananas. Wow! Then outside the market is a bazaar selling silks - saris, mostly - and sandalwood carvings. Around the city there are a lot of grand buildings. The Maharaja's Palace is the most famous, but there are numerous Victorian style buildings and towers around.

At night the city takes on a renewed energy. With the air cooler people come out and street vendors churn out South Indian food served on banana leaves. The market is open until 10:00 P.M. With the darkness concealing the piles of trash and the dirty walls of buildings it all looks quite charming.

Tomorrow I head out into the mountains to a hill station called Ooty!