Any idea what the distance is from Amritsar in the very North of India, near the Pakistani border, to the Southern tip at .... Thiruvanantampuram? By car it takes 57 hours to cover the 3,295 kilometres. If you take the train, purchase by preference a ticket for inside and not on the roof, because the ride takes a full 2 days and 8 hours. Without the inevitable delays that is. And add to that also another hour or so before you can pronounce the city of your destination once you make it through the crowd to the ticket sales office.

By itself, this says enough why we cannot reasonably have the ambition to cover the entire country, in all its aspects, and certainly neither to do so in one go. So, we split our reports on India in three units, one that focuses on Central India, one on the South, which - in a sense - could also be called 'India Light', as the contrasts here are not as sharp, the landscapes are gentler and greener, and, thirdly, Rajasthan, the India of the harsh and baking hot desert. Aware that there is so much more to see in this 'Incredible India', to follow the slogan, I can only hope that some day I will be in a position to add yet a few other dimensions of India, with the Kashmir and the Himalayan mountain ranges, the tribes area around Orissa and so many other things that remain to be discovered. For, it nearly despairs me that each time I open a travel guide on India, my eyes catch yet another place to be put on a next itinerary through India....