With one foot grounded in time honoured traditions and the other fervently striding into the entrepreneurial e-age, India embraces diversity as passionately as few other countries on earth could. Boasting a population of over one billion people - and steadily growing - India is as vast as it is crowded and as sublime as it is squalid. The plains are as flat and featureless as the Himalayas are towering and spectacular, the relegious texts as perplexing as their underlying message is simple, and the people as easy going as they are tenacious. Perhaps the one thing that encapsulates India is that it is a place to expect the unexpected. Indeed, that's what often makes travelling in the subcontinent so frustratingly draining, yet also so inimitable inspirational. Love it or hate it, India jostles your entire being and, while more than a few tourists are only too happy to head back home, many will later find themselves dying to get back. India can be hard going, and is guaranteed to challenge, inspire and confound all at once. The poverty is confronting - Mumbai slums and Delhi jhuggis are an example - Indian bureaucracy would test the patience of a saint, bus journeys on pothole riddled roadscan zap your energy in a flash - ever travelled in Bihar or MP? - and even the most experienced tourists find their tempers frayed at some point. Yet, it's all part of what makes India the unique travel experience that it is. Period. India, it is often said, is not a country but a continent. From north to south and from east to west, the people are diverse, the languages are varied, the customs are distinctive, the landscape is manifold. India's glorious diversity can make it a veritable quagmire when planning itineraries. On a personal level, India is going to be exactly what YOU make of it. This country is not a place you merely 'see', it is an assault on all the senses, a journey that's impossible to define because it is so different for everyone. But there is one thing for sure - no matter where you go or what you do, it's a place you will never forget! I and Reenu have by far travelled to Delhi, passed through Chandigarh, have stayed and photographed Shimla and Manali in the North, and Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani and Goa in the West.