India is alive
Here's the way I will try to describe India if someone asked me. Imagine your senses are a bunch of analog volume knobs. Volume is used to describe sound but let's imagine you have volume knobs for your other senses as well.
India turns the volume up on all of them. I feel that could help someone understand what it feels like to be there. The smells, the density of people, the stares, the rickshaws, the saris/turbans/burqas, the flavors, the honking, the bells, the animals, the crazy driving, the temples, the smiles, the monkeys...everything is on full blast. Imagine full blast in your head phones, then transfer that to your other senses.
I just got back from my trip and I was in Seattle on a cold December day. I'm left wondering 'Where is everybody?! Who turned the volume down? Where did the animals go? The vendors? The honking? The garbage? The shouting and smiling?' I'm not going to hate on Seattle (too easy) but it just feels so white, organized, lonely, and quiet compared to India.
I have this urge to walk around with a boombox held above my head blasting salsa music just to wake everyone up and to feel alive again.
India's sensory volume can be very overwhelming (in a negative way) but it's often exhilarating and fascinating.
