My favorite quote about India comes from Keith Bellows, editor of National Geographic magazine:
"When I first vistied, I was stunned by the richness of the land, by its lush beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to overload the senses with the pure, concentrated intensity of its colors, smells, tastes, and sounds… I had been seeing the world in black & white and, when brought face-to-face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant technicolor.”
Everyone who has lived in India can attest to what Mr. Bellows described. The intensity of sights, smells, sounds, & tastes couldn't begin to compare with anything I had experienced before.
Ctiy streets are flooded with masses of people, colorfully adorned in various styles of clothing, and snippets of conversations in Hindi, Garwhali, and many strange tongues reach your ears. A Hindu altar may share a street corner with a Punjabi restaurant with a Sikkh owner. I suppose that's part of what attracted me to this place-- the diversity of languages, religions & microcultures all blended harmoniously into the whole.
I quickly came to understand that this program would be teaching me a lot more than medicine. It felt as though I had stepped into a time machine: while my life at home stayed unchanged in its constant routine, a whole elaborate plot now began to take place within and around me in India.
"When I first vistied, I was stunned by the richness of the land, by its lush beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to overload the senses with the pure, concentrated intensity of its colors, smells, tastes, and sounds… I had been seeing the world in black & white and, when brought face-to-face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant technicolor.”
Everyone who has lived in India can attest to what Mr. Bellows described. The intensity of sights, smells, sounds, & tastes couldn't begin to compare with anything I had experienced before.
Ctiy streets are flooded with masses of people, colorfully adorned in various styles of clothing, and snippets of conversations in Hindi, Garwhali, and many strange tongues reach your ears. A Hindu altar may share a street corner with a Punjabi restaurant with a Sikkh owner. I suppose that's part of what attracted me to this place-- the diversity of languages, religions & microcultures all blended harmoniously into the whole.
I quickly came to understand that this program would be teaching me a lot more than medicine. It felt as though I had stepped into a time machine: while my life at home stayed unchanged in its constant routine, a whole elaborate plot now began to take place within and around me in India.
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