India is a shining example of everything lacking in Western Culture.

When I first arrived at New Delhi airport, all I saw was dust.

I never expected to be spotting the horn of a Rhino before it charges through flustered fauna or enter a transe-like state as we watch the religious fire ceremony from a boat, adrift next to   a billion tea-candles that escape down the river. 

The second lesson India taught me was the value of a random cow in the street. The first was to get out of said cow’s way or you may die. 

For this cow, stray dogs and nippy monkeys teach Indian society the lesson of patience.  These cows are respected to the level of gods and fed as a form of good karma. It’s beautifully twisted however at the age of 22, I’m realising the best things in life usually are. 

Here, spices slide onto tongues, slapping the monotony of eating food for comfort or survival across the face. In Russia, drinks get you drunk. In Italy, food makes you wish you had a second or third stomach. Here, everything has taste. Everything leaves you feeling full.

Perhaps it’s the 300,000 + gods that bring forth humbleness and a desire to be grateful or maybe it’s the bleak surroundings of overpopulated and underdeveloped cities… 

However, I do believe everyone needs to experience India. And not because we are all looking for the cure to dissatisfaction in our lives, cough cough – Elizabeth Gilbert- but rather becuase we need perspective. 

India shows a depth in poverty unlike anything I had seen before but also, a deeper level of happiness; like the two are somehow intertwined. Like dance partners, you couldn’t see one, without the other. 

The religion, animals everywhere, men in packs, the richness of quisine- India is the place to go when you need to find a better way of being. 

I think in Western Societies we become so enthralled in our little day-to-day, that we forget about the bigger picture. That simple, small things make humans happy.

India is the first place I’ve visited that left me feeling vision impaired and for that I couldn’t be more grateful.