Quotes on India

Val here.
India is wonderfully described in two sections of Sarah MacDonald's insightful, often funny book on India entitled Holy Cow! (Bantam Books 2002) It is difficult to sum up India better than she does.
As follows:

It's a bizarre scene - full of foreigners attempting to figure out India. I'm beginning to think it's pointless to try. India is beyond statement, for anything you say, the opposite is also true. It's rich and poor, spiritual and material, cruel and kind, angry but peaceful, ugly and beautiful, and smart but stupid. (p.123)

I feel guilty for not giving these women money and guilty for knowing it wouldn't be enough. I feel guilty for being in a position where I'm privileged enough to be a giver rather than a taker and I feel guilty for wanting more than I have and taking what I do have for granted. At times I feel angry at the injustice. But most of all I feel confused and confronted. Why was I born in my safe, secure, sunny Sydney sanctuary and not in Kesroli? India accepts that I deserved it, but I can't. (p. 127,128)