Senses-filling India

India! Many love it, and some say they hate it, but no one is indifferent to this vast subcontinent teeming with almost one billion people. I was privileged to view it on a March-April tour with The Eagle Connection (Te Wairua, Apuau Channel, Private Bag, Havelock, Marlborough, North Island, New Zealand; phone +64 3 576 5048, fax 5148, www.eagle-tours.co.nz).

Some of my impressions — a kaleidoscope of color that swirled and shifted endlessly; people, cows and vehicles pressing in closely, and pilgrims who chanted, turned prayer wheels and elbowed past us to present gifts to Jawalamukhi, the Goddess of Fire, in her namesake town.

A cacophony of beeping horns, barking dogs and shopkeepers hawking their wares assaulted our ears, while dust, rotting garbage, exhaust fumes, incense and tantalizing food aromas tickled our olfactory nerves.

This was life as glimpsed in the small villages and towns in the Himalayan foothills of Himachal Pradesh in northern India, the most picturesque and one of the most historic and culturally diverse areas not just in this unique country but in the entire world.

NANCY S. TARDY

Henderson, NV