Voyages of voluminous variety

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Josh journeyed through India beginning at the northern most tip of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiri women radiantly dressed with jewelry and kaftans picked the most succulent apples and other fruit. He spent the night in a beautifully lit, flower bedecked shikara( house boat).The freezing lakes and snowy, dewy mountainous backdrops. They were still, serene and surreal. Punjab was where the world famous Punjabi cuisine took birth.

It was where the stereotyped Pugree clad Indian was found. Most of these gourmets were large, bearded and mustached. and had insatiable appetites for cheeses ,meat, onions, green chillies and tandoor bread .

In the east,(overlooking the scenic valleys)were resorts

like Shimla and Darjeeling. Josh traversed through Nagaland, (their official language being English ), Sikkim, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura (all hilly and snowy)-where there was the bamboo dance, a monotonous yet thrilling dance, where the women dressed in bright colors leapt nimbly in between bamboo poles rhythmically, when one misstep could almost always mean injury. There were snow clad Himachal Pradesh mountains bordering Nepal, Tibet and China. Arunachal Pradesh, being the eastern most state, saw the first sights of sunrise. The Assamese women plucked tea leaves of lush, mountainous tea gardens. Bengal, where people had withstood the beginnings of English colonists, was named British East India. It was the home of Sunderbans, the home of the royal Bengal Tiger and the home of the Hooghly River and of the animal rights activist-Jim Corbett. Uttar Pradesh,(lit. meaning: Northern Province) largest in terms of population, with Lucknow - famous for Mughal Influences and cloth embroidery chikan work. UP was also noted for the Ganges(the holy Indian river),the holy Kashi and Benaras that was famous for temples, sarees ,Paan and Bhang(an intoxicating brew). Uttarakhand, known for handlooms and handicrafts He crossed Chhattisgarh with the murmuring Mahanadi river, meandering and sallying across the land. Madhya Pradesh, (lit. meaning: central province) largest state in terms of area, was well known for its National parks .Bihar was the domicile of the Buddha and Asoka the great. Orissa was the homeland of the beautiful Odissi (classical dance form).The highly industrious land of Haryana (manufacturer of nearly half of Indian vehicles) and Jharkhand - Jamshedpur Tata’s pet project .Gujarat and Rajasthan were beautiful, with women clad in shiny, bright hued Ghaghara cholis, catching light on the floodlit roads dancing garba .People were thronging on the streets consuming large quantities of chaat and ice cream during the sweltering summer nights. Then he moved to Mumbai, the big, bad capital of Maharashtra, and the hub of the Indian (and even foreign) film industry. The Indian version of Hollywood was also known as the tinsel town of Bollywood.

As Josh moved south, he reached the land of fantasies: Goa. He sampled the Goan fish curry. All the coastal regions had their own versions of fish curries. Sometimes wrapped in leaves and served. Goa had heavy Portuguese influences. There was the colorful Goan carnival and the warm, tepid beaches were spotted with bikini-clad foreigners lapping up the sun. One of their official languages was English. The variegated and much talked about South India was on his itinerary now. As the train inched slowly from

Mumbai suburbs, he eagerly awaited his next station-Chennai.