Dream Trip 2008: April

Great Travel Moment

In India how amazing it was to approach rudimentary farming villages surrounded by cell phone towers and to walk through streets teeming with cars, buses, bicycles, and the ubiquitous cows ambling casually along. A plethora of food stalls on streets populated by beggars presaged the cornucopia of contrasts everywhere. In the remote rural villages women cocooned in their saris to prevent unknown men from viewing their faces. This scene near the temple town of Neelkanth, which is nestled near Alwar and Jaipur in the northern part of India, enthralled me with the serene pose of the women and the apprehensive look on the child's face. The vibrant colors of the saris and the reclusive posture of the women compared with the child's simple clothing and open stance epitomized the overwhelming world of contrasts in India that assaulted my senses everywhere we traveled.