Twain Says...

India

"The land of dreams and romance

of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty

of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels 

of famine and pestilence

of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps

of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle

the country of hundred nations and a hundred tongues

of a thousand religions and two million gods

cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech

mother of history, grandmother of legend

great-grandmother of traditions

 whose yesterday's bear date 

with the modering antiquities for the rest of nations - 

the one sole country under the sun 

that is endowed with an imperishable interest 

for alien prince and alien peasant

for lettered and ignorant, wise and fool

rich and poor, bond and free

the one land that all men desire to see

and having seen once

by even a glimpse 

would not give that glimpse 

for the shows of all the rest of the world combined."

- Mark Twain