India seems committed to being over-the-top in the best way possible. It’s colorful, noisy, crowded, vast, deeply historic, spiritual, vibrantly modern, multi-lingual, and stunningly beautiful.  Want to get loud? India is the place for you! Sure, its population of 1.4 billion people might overwhelm you with the sheer crush of humanity, but its cities have an undeniable energy once you’re acclimated. Delhi, the capital, has everything that makes travel great: ancient forts, mosques and temples, leafy parks and botanical gardens, sprawling bazaars, and bustling lanes of street food.  Feeling like a quiet retreat? India is the birthplace of yoga and meditation. You could visit Rishikesh, on the bank of the Ganges, to practice asanas in the birthplace of yoga.  India is also a fantastic place to shop for jewelry in a market, eat the best curries in the world, browse epic English-language bookstores, wander through centuries-old forts, and, of course, marvel at the Taj Mahal. In this episode, we celebrate the poet Kabir Das, talk about dolphin rights, dig into Salvador Dali’s quirks, and explore India’s Golden Triangle. Then we recommend five great books that took us to India on the page: Loot: A Novel by Tania James City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi by William Dalrymple Dishoom: Cookery Book and Highly Subjective Guide to Bombay by Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar, Naved Nasir The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar by Indra Das The Bandit Queens: A Novel by Parini Shroff For more on the books we recommend, plus the other cool stuff we talk about, visit show notes. Sign up for our free Substack to connect with us and other lovely readers who are curious about the world. Transcript of India: The Continent Masquerading as a Country Do you enjoy our show? Do you want be friends with other (lovely) people who love books and travel? Please support our work on Patreon! Strong Sense of Place is an audience-funded endeavor, and we need your support to continue making this show. Get all the info you need right here. Thank you! Parts of the Strong Sense of Place podcast are produced in udio! Some effects are provided by soundly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices