My Second Home: India

Even though it is roughly 9000 miles from my first home to my second, I still find time to visit it every year. India, with its culture rich in history, dance, art, music, and food. The first trip I ever took to India was much before I can even remember, but over the past few years I have really begun to grow an appreciation for this country with so much culture which I am a part of.
Many people do not know of India apart from the Taj Mahal- a huge marble masterpiece also serving as a tomb for the architect's wife. And beyond that- what else has it got to offer? When I go to India, I rarely ever visit the famous landmarks- instead I spend time bonding with my relatives, shopping on the busy Commercial Street in Bangalore, observing the people cranking sugarcane juice from a machine that has probably never been cleaned, and while you drink from the plastic cups, you are "literally fighting for lip space with the flies" the way my dad puts it. The early morning walks with my grandparents around the neighborhood or trying to find a single moment where nobody is honking their shrill autorikshaw horns on the road.
It's visiting the village in Mangalore, another city, where my parent's cousins live and playing in the acres of rural forest and farm. Being able to first hand experience milking a cow and eating on banana leaves with my hands. And living in a house with the most modern technology as a small ten inch black and white television, and still being able to appreciate and love it.
That is India as I see it- I live it and breathe it, and still after a month's stay, I don't want to leave it.