Spice up your life

INDIA keeps calling me back. Few places on earth offer the diversity of experiences that this intriguing country delivers — a lifetime is not long enough to know it.

In the space of an hour, one can witness hand-pulled rickshaws, camel carts and ceremonial elephants, oxen ploughing the fields with bells tinkling from their gaily painted horns, side by side with brand-new tractors. There are all manner of enterprise and activity — roadside barbers lathering their customers’ chins, cross-legged tailors, chapatti makers, sweetmeat makers, spice wallahs, blacksmiths sharpening sickles to harvest the mustard crop — all alongside glitzy malls. Nowadays, the poorest stallholder is likely to have a mobile phone. Even though economic growth has slowed considerably, much is changing.

In the countryside, women in beautiful saris work on the roads and in the brickworks, carrying heavy loads on their heads with seemingly effortless ease. And everywhere one goes, people have a ready smile.