The stores of exoticism in this endlessly absorbing land extend from the Himalaya
in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south. • India, Mark Twain once said, is "the
one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would
not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the world combined." • The
result of the 1947 British partition of the subcontinent, India is today the world's
largest democracy and has more millionaires than the United States. • Bollywood,
Slumdog Millionaire, the Bangalore call centers—all obscure the "real" India, with
its unique wildlife, culture, crafts, and skills.
 Two women in Jaipur hold
candles to celebrate Diwali,
or the Festival of Lights.
Observed over five days
throughout India, it marks,
among other things, the
start of the new business
year and the victory of light
over dark.

Photograph by Joe McNally/National
Geographic Stock
 In the spring, Hindis
celebrate Holi, or the
festival of color, by
taking to the streets and
throwing colored powder
or colored water at each
other. The result: throngs
of people covered in
bright colors.

Picture found at
bestcelebrations.wordpress.com/.../
 During the ten-day Ganesh
festival in Mumbai,
devotees carry a statue of
the elephant-headed
Hindu god into the sea.
Across India, worshippers
carry hundreds of the
statues into rivers and
lakes as well as the sea.

Photograph by Gautam Singh/Associated
Press
 Hindu pilgrims bathe in
the Ganges hoping to
wash away their sins.
Every 12 years millions
take part in the 45-day
Kumbh Mela, or Grand
Pitcher Festival, which
includes ritual bathing in
this and other rivers.

Photograph by David Lazar, My Shot
 The Taj Mahal, one of
the most enduring
symbols of India, is
popular with tourists,
drawing more than two
million each year. Cricket
is the most popular sport
in India.

Photograph by Adrian Pope/Getty Images
 The Mogul emperor Shah
Jahan built the Taj Mahal
in Agra as a tribute to his
favorite wife, who died in
childbirth in 1630. The
white marble monument,
with its sprawling gardens,
took 20 years to build. A
red sandstone mosque
stands on one side.

Photograph by Apratim Saha, My Shot
 Decorated elephants carry
tourists past the Jaigarh
and Amber Forts in Jaipur,
Rajasthan, constructed
beginning in the 15th
century. The marble-andsandstone Amber Fort has
intricate carvings; the
immense Jaigarh Fort once
served as a center of
artillery production.

Photograph by Patitucci/Aurora Photos
 Mumbai’s Chhatrapati
Shivaji train station,
formerly the Victoria
Terminus, is notable for its
mix of traditional Indian
and Victorian Gothic
Revival architecture; it has
turrets, pointed arches,
and a ground plan that
resembles an Indian
palace.

Photograph by Aji Lal, My Shot
 Bangalore’s Brigade Road
hums, a reflection of
how quickly India’s
industries have grown in
response to
globalization. Along with
Commercial Street and
the MG Road, Brigade
Road appeals to young,
savvy shoppers.

Photograph by Walter
Bibikow/photolibrary.com
 Melocanna baccifera
flowers every 50 years in
India’s Mizoram state – and
its blooming brings tens of
millions of hungry rats.
After they devour the
bamboo fruit, the rats
demolish precious crops
like rice. The last outbreak
began in late 2006 and
continued through 2008.

Picture found at
www.bamboocraft.net/forums/showthread.ph
p?t=2371
 The rolling hills near
Munnar, Kerala, are
covered with tea
plantations that were
originally planted by a
Scotsman in the late 19th
century.

Photograph by Subhrojyoti Banerjee, My
Shot
 To honor the dead,
lanterns are hung from
poles stuck into the
banks of the Ganges
during Akash Deep Puja,
the sky lantern festival.

Photograph by John Henry Claude
Wilson/Getty Images
 Fishing is an important
source of income in
Kerala. People in the
southwestern state also
have the highest literacy
rate in India and enjoy
the best health.

Photograph by Vikram Singh, My Shot
 The Ladakh region,
culturally Tibetan, is
home to Buddhist
temples and gompas, or
monasteries, including
Lamayuru. This arid
Himalaya land was
closed to visitors until
the 1970s, and it remains
sparsely populated.

Photograph by Robert Harding/Masterfile
 Snow leopards live up to their
reputation for being impossible
to find. Secretive, well
camouflaged, and usually
solitary, the cats are most active
at night and in the twilight hours
of dusk and dawn, prowling
amid the most formidable
tumult of mountains on Earth,
including the Himalaya.
 Picture found at
www.ecotours.com/dest_india.html
 Hyenas get a bad wrap
worldwide – even in
Hollywood, think back to
The Lion King. In
Tanzania and India the
much maligned animals
are believed to carry
witches.

Picture found at
scienceblogs.com/neurotopia/2009/09/friday_
we...
 Cows, such as these two
in Varanasi, are a
common sight on India’s
congested streets.
Hindus revere cows,
believing that they offer
sustenance and ask
nothing in return.

Photograph by Mark Henley/photolibrary.com
 A cow lies in the middle of the
Golden Quadrilateral, a
superhighway that opened in
1998 linking India's four main
cities: Mumbai, Chennai,
Kolkata (Calcutta), and Delhi.
It’s part of a $30 billion-plus
National Highways
Development Project—the most
ambitious building spree in
India since Britain created the
railway system in the 1800s.

Photograph by Ed Kashi
 Kolkata’s omnipresent
rickshaws are part of its
image—something it
would like to change.
City officials have
debated banning the
hand-pulled vehicles,
citing traffic jams as well
as humanitarian issues.

Photograph by Ed Kashi
 Dabbawallahs, sometimes
called tiffin wallahs, fetch
freshly cooked meals or
snacks from the homes of
office workers and deliver it
to them at their
workplaces. Literally,
translated, “dabbawallah”
means “one who carries a
box.”

Picture found at www.nowpublic.com/techbiz/dabbawalla-mumbai-...
 A young girl walks through
Mumbai's Dharavi slum, home to
about a million people. Many
Indians live in modern suburbs and
work in gleaming skyscrapers, but
many more—a large majority—
remain impoverished and trapped
by tradition.
 Until the late 19th Century, this area
of Mumbai was mangrove swamp,
inhabited by Koli fishermen. When
the swamp filled in (with coconut
leaves, rotten fish, and human
waste), the Kolis left – and others
moved in. The result is the most
diverse slum in India’s most diverse
city.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen/National
Geographic Stock
 The percentage of Indians living
in poverty continues to drop –
thanks largely to the creation of
a robust internal market for
Indian goods – and it’s projected
that in 2025 the number of
Indians living in poverty will
have dipped by 22 percent.

Picture available at
wadias.in/site/arzan/blog/wpcontent/5107BH1.jpg
 India’s strict caste system
dictates occupations of all
Hindus. Untouchables are
shunned by the rest of
society and usually
relegated to tasks defined
by Hindu law as unclean –
physical work dealing with
blood, excrements, and
bodily functions.

photography.nationalgeographic.com/photogr
aph...
 The Parsis of India – whose
Zoroastrian faith prohibits them
from tainting earth, wind, or fire
with their corpses – have for
centuries exposed their dead to
scavenging birds. Recently,
diminishing numbers of vultures
in India have pushed the Parsis
to rely on the gradual effects of
the elements to claim their dead.

Picture found at
flickr.com/photos/23429778@N07/3292617292
 Two men wrestle during
a festival in Himachal
Pradesh, which means
“region of snowy
mountains.” This resort
area in the foothills of
the Himalaya is an
Indian favorite.

Photograph by Himanshu Khagta, My Shot
 Women in bright saris
crowd together as they
walk in a bridal procession
in Mandawa, Rajasthan.
Rajasthan is the largest
state in India—a land of
extremes—encompassing
steamy forests, dry plains,
and the snowy Himalaya.

Photograph by Antonino Puppi, My Shot
 In Mumbai, a bride feeds
the groom at a Jain
wedding, which requires
a series of rituals
thanking deities. Some
tenets of Jainism are
similar to those of
Hinduism, but the
religion hasn’t spread far
beyond India.

Photograph by Kris Pannecoucke/Aurora
Photos
 The hands of a woman in
Jaipur are covered with
mehndi patterns painted
with henna. Trendy in
recent years, the lacework
decorations are part of a
5,000-year-old tradition of
creating designs to ward
off evil or declare one’s
happiness.

Photograph by Petra Warner, My Shot
 A man steps through a
doorway at the
Varadarajaswamy Temple
in Kanchipuram, “city of
a thousand temples.”
Kanchipuram is also
known for silk saris—a
thriving business here.

Photograph by Dinodia
Dinodia/photolibrary.com
 A woman in Deshnoke,
Rajasthan, stands outside
the Karni Mata Temple, a
monument to the rat
goddess. More than 20,000
rats live in the temple,
including a handful of
white ones, which are
thought to be direct
descendents of Karni Mata
and therefore considered
especially sacred.

Photograph by Rachael Williams, My Shot
 Passengers peer out the
windows of a train in a
station in Varanasi, a
3,000-year-old holy city
filled with religious statues
and temples. Many Hindus
journey here to walk down
the ghats, or steps, into the
Ganges River to be
purified.

Photograph by Thomas Holton/Getty
Images
 The Baha’i House of
Worship in New Delhi is
better known as the
Lotus Temple, thanks to
its lotus-shaped concrete
petals. The complex
covers 26 acres (nearly 11
hectares).

Photograph by Ed Freeman/Getty Images
 Sikhs reach to touch a chest
containing a copy of their holy
book, the Guru Granth Sahib, as
it’s carried into Sachkhand Sri
Hazur Sahib, a temple in
Nanded, during the 300thanniversary celebration of the
book’s consecration. Sikhs also
mark the anniversaries of the
passing of their religion’s gurus.

Photograph by Charles Meacham, My Shot
 Tourists flock to Agra to
see the world-famous Taj
Mahal, only to realize
that the area is home to
many other astonishing
buildings, among them
the 16th-century Red
Fort, which once
surrounded a Mogul
imperial city.

Photograph by Martin Bauer, My Shot
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/india guide/