"If somebody asks me where the human mind has developed the most, I would surely point towards India..." remarked Max Muller when once inquired as to which race he considered the most progressive of all. True! When the buds of civilization were still sprouting in so many contemporary countries, India was at its brim of cultural progress and promotion.

Travel India : A thousand images rise, sloeeyed women in brilliant sarees, swaying down village streets; computer whiz kids in a Bangalore street cafe; wildlife sanctuaries and national park of Uttaranchal; the luminous Taj Mahal, love poem in marble; a small man in a loincloth marching to independence.

India is the stark mountains of Ladakh, she is the sand dunes of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, bustling Mumbai, verdant northeast forests where orchids grow wild, the breathtaking sunsets at land's end, Kanya ng atonement in the Ganges. Rich with history and glowing with the promise of tomorrow, India is, most of all, destinations to be savoured. From the smoky mangroves of the Sunderbans to the steaming Thar Desert, sizzling cities like Mumbai and Delhi to the scintillating villages of Khajuraho and Hampi, from the heights of the Himalayas to the deep blue waters around the Andamans, India is a travel haven – a tour package that frustrates and delights, as demanding as it is rewarding.

It demands that the traveller be prepared for its own strange forms of tourism offerings - the crowds at Pushkar, for pushy mendicants at Haridwar, for high commercialism at spiritual retreats. But equally, it means that he be prepared for an overwhelming warmth in the people, ease of conversation, and to be stunned into speechlessness by the beauty, sometimes the manmade and often the natural.

But what exactly is it that gets two and a half million people to pack their bags, book their tickets, buy industrial size cans of suntan lotion and enough toilet paper to supply the entire population of Liechtenstein for a month, and wing their way to India? Given that this is the land of the Taj, granted too that tea, tobacco, tempestuous democracy and terrific travel are a great combination but surely that's not reason enough.

There must be more because between truisms and half-truths, India has inspired more than any one place's fair share of travel lore. And, perhaps that's what it is - the legends of India - that's what inspires people from far and near to travel here, to sort out for themselves what's true and what's just a whole lot of tourism pamphlet hype. If that's what you're going to be doing, here's a bit of India tourism mantra to help you on your way: expect nothing and everything will be yours.

Time Zone
Indian Standard Time (IST) is 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT+5.5). Daylight Saving is not observed.

Climate
In India, it rains only during a specific time of the year. The season as well as the phenomenon that causes it is called the monsoon. There are two of them, the Southwest and the Northeast, both named after the directions the winds come from.