The American humorist Mark Twain (1835-1920) came to India ostensibly to write about it. He did a few articles on what he saw and the people he met but what he had to say about the country, he summed up in the following words:
“This is India! The land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendour and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genie and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of a hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birth place of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great grandmother of tradition, whose yesterdays bear date with the mouldering antiquities of the rest of the nations — the one sole country under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for alien persons, four-lettered and ignorant, wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined. Even now, after a lapse of a year, the delirium of those days in Bombay has not left me and I hope it will never will.”
Phew......is this a memoir or RawketScience ???
There are two things in this world that give me a kick like nothing else, curvaceous posteriors(female of course) and spanking (pun intended) great blogs.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see your blog. Nice profile pic. I foresee some great stuff being posted here.
Those were the most encouraging words i've heard in past few months.....I will try to make it a spanking great blog....but for curvaceous posterior GO & OGLE some where else (got the pun?)
ReplyDeleteA country of paradox and diversity. You have taken a nice memoir for us. With master Rahul already had applauded your way of writing, I am in full agreement with him.Hope for more stuff in coming future. And just take a look on memoir of one more traveller.
ReplyDeleteAl Beruni's India)