From ‘For a Pagan Song. In the footsteps of the man who would be king: travels in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan’ by Jonny Bealby

…..thats India – anything can happen and usually does

As one fellow traveler put it to me: ‘It’s the only place on the planet where everything that has ever happened in the history of the world is happening every minute of every day, right under your nose.; He’s right. I mean where else could I have watched a cow casually give birth in the middle of a three-lane inner-city ring road or seen vultures swoop to pick the flesh of recently deceased humans? Where else could I have observed a camel wandering the streets under a mountain of straw while being shaved by a blind man on the pavement? And where indeed at three in the morning after a riotious midnight dinner could I have abandoned my dangerously drunk taxi driver in favour of an enormous elephant called Rubkali with ‘STOP – HORN PLEASE’ painted across her arse? Though not always pleasant, travelling here is about ten times more intense than anywhere else I’ve been; a vitality unmatcheable.