Cow Pats and Burning Gats

So I arrived in India... on the way from the airport I looked out in the dark (after 6 hours sleep in the last 48 hours) and saw the dirt and the dust and the huddled beggars and thought, like millions of other travellers to this land, "what the hell am I doing here!?!"...
And then I arrived at my colonial luxury hotel and stared wide eyed at the massive ornate circular staircase and the busy bus boys in red and gold suits... and I started to smile a little... and then after many minutes of confusion I finally managed to establish that my parents were not in fact at the hotel... probably... I was then shown to my room, which was already occupied...and then shown to another happily unoccupied room.... and smiled a little more during the detailed instructions from the bus boy about how to use the hot water tap (no - just a normal tap). Having ordered some indian chai tea...I sat back with Indian pop music videos on the TV and waited, and eventually my parents did indeed turn up... so I smiled again :-)
It was the next morning however that my smile reached inside my chest and filled up my heart with joy... walking out into the streets of poo... dodging beggars with outstretched fingers and deep beseeching eyes... face full of dust and diesel fumes... weaving between insane rickshaw drivers, motorbikes and cows... holding my nose passing the toilet "wall"... and surrounded by the grit and grissle of LIFE... its something about the combination of so many horrid things, stirred and mixed in with huge open smiles, vibrant colours all around, a profusion of interesting things to look at in every direction, and the indiscribable magic ingredient that is captivatingly "INDIA". I smiled like the crazy woman I felt like... bubbles of joy floated up from my chest and popped in my brain.... I can't do it justice with mere words - I know its been described hundreds of times by hundreds of people in letters, books, emails, postcards... but really - its just a "gotta be there" kind of thing... those who have been to India will nod knowingly... the rest will wonder what on earth all the fuss is about... all I can say is well, with every sense aflame you sure do know you are alive here :-)