Geography (Nature)

Take a map of India, cut it out, put on the map of the USA + Canada or of Europe of the same scale and you will be surprised how big this country is. And it is surrounded by seas from three sides and by the highest mountains of the world in the North. A sack. Most of the invaders had to climb high before occupying parts or the whole of India, only the British came by sea.

I suggest you to read the Geography of the Embassy’s site (www.indianembassy.hu), unless you want to study this subject in details.

I expected deep monsoon forests, very rich nature and was disappointed: most of the country is covered by mediocre vegetation: small, crooked trees, bushes, yellowish grass, the arable land is dusty. There are huge deserts, growing 1% per year.

In spite of this general impression the country is beautiful: you can see rich forests in several regions: in the valleys of the Himalayas, in Kashmir, in the southern states (tropical ones) of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, on the hilly areas of Gujarat. Extremely interesting is to see the labyrinths of groups of banja-trees, the aerial clinging roots of which grow up to become new trees. A single one of them may have the diameter of 150 m. I was lucky enough to spend a day in Darjeeling, the valley of which is a fantasy-world, deep forests on the slopes, the city sitting on the mountain like a tea-cup, white clouds running towards you like incredible creatures and suddenly covering you like fog. You get up next morning to see an entirely different nature: clean air, sharp contrasts, the snow-cap of Kanchenjunga (the second highest peak of the Himalaya range) is quietly smoking, changing its colour from deep red to yellow and finally bright white as the sun raises its head above the mountains. Unbelievable beauty!

Apropos, the creation legend of Lepchas, native inhabitants of the area sounds like this: god has made a snow ball from the snow taken from the peak of Kanchenjunga, put it in his right hand and said: be man. And the first man was born. Then he made a ball of the same snow, put it into his left hand and said: be woman. And the first woman was born.

Hm, we believe we are made of dust and bone, some aboriginals of Indonesia (if I remember well) derive human race from fishes, Lepchas from snow of their highest peak. Who is right? (None of them, in my opinion, all these legends are beautiful fairy tales.)

Oh, how far I am from the original subject of these “remarks”. I hope you do not mind if I leave it as it is. I am not scientist, anyway.