India is surely not the simplest country for a stay in a foreign country however it is a very intensive country and culture to be in and to experience. The intensity of this country can be found everywhere and for us, more or less accustomed to the average it is very difficult to adjust to so many extremes.

Newest technologies and wealth next to poverty and underdevelopment, arranged weddings next to young people who carry the latest branded fashion and study in the US or UK, a new Mercedes and a bullock cart sharing one road.

The intensity addresses all senses. One feels it, when the hot sun burns and one prosperates due to high humidity. One can taste it, while trying the variety of Indian food or the delicious tropical fruits. One can hear it, when the rickshaws and cars honk; the loudspeakers of the temple shout their chants or the mosques call for the first prayer early morning. One can see it in the strong colors of the cloth, in the beauty of the Indian woman, but also in the poverty on the road and while passing by a slum. One can smell it, the wonderful jasmine chains, which most South Indian woman still tie in their hair or while passing by heaps of garbage at road sides.

Some love India and some hate it and some feel both at the same time. But there is hardly anything in-between. For us “Europeans” it is a strange world, whose rhythm and laws we first have to learn and adjust to.