India Weekendtrips and Daily Life
India Roundtrip
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India - the land of adventure and mysticism. India - a place that means many different things to the people who visit it. For some it's the spiritual fascination. The search for a guru or spiritual teacher; to find the inner self, who we really are. For others it is a land of forts, palaces and ancient history, and for still others it is a place to relax and have a really good time on the beach or at a wildlife park. Even if one traveled in India for years he or she would not see everything India has to offer.
Anything anyone says about India could be true. Equally true would be the opposite view! To describe India is like the story of the five blind men, each of whom touched one part of an elephant and gave a different description of what the elephant looked like. Likewise, each visitor to India will inevitably, hold a different opinion. It is a land of great variety, seemingly of contradictions, where the past of thousand of years is living and vivid. The people, their color, the intermingling of the past and the present are India's greatest charm, her great attraction.
India is basically divided into three parts: the Himalaya mountain area, North India, and South India. Each state within these areas can be totally different - just as if another country. If you lay a map of India over a map of Europe, it covers the area from Denmark to Libya, and from Spain to Russia. As different as these European countries are, so are the different parts of India. Rajasthan is the land of forts, palaces and ancient history, Himachal Pradesh is a place of mountains and relaxation, Uttar Pradesh is the home of important holy cities. Goa is a place of beautiful beaches and relaxation. In South India there are many ancient, huge, unbelievable carved temples, and some great beaches. About one billion (one thousand millions) people live on 3,287,590 sq.km of land. They speak 325 different languages and practise more than 7 religions (sometimes two or more at the same time). Each area of India has its own distinct culture, and Uttar Pradesh is as different from Tamil Nadu as Finland is from Italy.
More information (demographic, geographic, historical, ...) can be found here.
For many, India is the perfect vacation. A place you come back to many times, at least wish you could. But for others, India is pure stress - the heat, the pollution, the omnipresent poverty, the bureaucracy, etc. can be very tiring, very exhausting and very strenuous. Either you love India or you hate it. I'm sure I belong to the first group. Somehow India has a certain kind of emanation on me - there is something that is fascinating me… and that something I want to discover.
India, a country where you can expect nothing and everything at the same time.
Religions of India
There are more religions practiced in India than in any other country of the world, nearly all the religions of the world having followers in this country. India itself has been the birthplace of many major religions, and Indian philosophy has influenced intellectuals of other cultures from time immemorial.
The majority of Indians - more than 80% - are Hindus. Buddhism, which was born here, has been absorbed into the Hindu world-view in India, but maintains an identity and a position as one of the world's major religions outside India. Jainism and Sikhism have points of unity and divergence with Hinduism, and are highly visible and influential minority faiths. The Parsis came to India to escape relgious prosecution, and have maintained their spiritual practices here unhampered. Islam came with the Moghul conquerors in the North, and with Arabic traders in the South. Christianity, for as long as it has existed as a religion, has existed in India.
Indian Cuisine
Indian cuisine is considered to be one of the three great and distinctive cuisines of the world, the other being the Chinese and the French.
Indian cuisine aims to satisfy the needs of the tongue and body, from sweet to sour, bitter or hot, from heatening to cooling foods, from food for the body to food for the brain, from food for the young and for active persons to saatvik food (which is believed to aid control of the senses). Within these parameters, each region has nurtured its own culinary tastes using different combinations of spices.
Also, no country in the world has developed such an elaborate and tasty range of vegetarian cuisine as India.
India is an experience I will never forget; I will go away with memories that last a lifetime, and without a doubt have many interesting stories to tell when I go home.
Government of India Tourist Office Europe
Indiatimes.com
6 Billion and Beyond: India
Philip Aylward's India Photo Essay and Travelogue
Outlooktraveller.com
@Delhi - India's First City
Times City
Delhiworld.com
Metro Delhi
Newdelhi.net
indiatravelinfo.com
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