India lives up to all expectations: dawn strolls along the misty ghats of Varanasi, mornings snaking through the lagoons of Kerala in your bamboo house boat, afternoons sipping Darjeeling tea on the terrace of a Mughal palace.
Shoppers can gorge themselves in the bazaars and fabric stalls of Paharganj in Delhi, while those seeking spiritual succour may head for Buddha's tree of enlightenment in Bodhgaya. Some fall under the paradisiacal spell of beach life in Gokarna, never to return.
Small is big in India, and developing any sense of perspective is lost in a pungent stew of local cultures and dialects. Neighbourhood shrines are as treasured as the great pilgrimage sites of Puri or Lucknow, and the celebration of a local deity in a Rajastani village is just as exuberant as the nationwide festivals of Holi and Diwali.
Northern India is characterised by its Mughal architecture, magnificent palaces and forts that are enmeshed in an intense network of industrial cities and towns. This is the India of contrasts, urban deprivation against breathtaking human achievements.
The pace of life and density of population drops noticeably as you head south, where intermittent jungle and closer proximity to water acts as some sort of panacea to the people.
India is a lexicon of detail: from the dozens of dainty erotic carvings on the sun temple of Konark, to hundreds of hand-threaded sequins on a crimson wedding sari, to the millions of tiny jewels that decorate that ostentatious celebration of love, the Taj Mahal.
This is the most tangible of countries, it envelops you, and it's the details, as well as the cultural highlights, that stay in the mind.
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