That is the slogan of the India Ministry of Tourism and part of its website URL - http://www.incredibleindia.org/. If you had travelled with me yesterday afternoon on my three hour car journey from Varanasi to Allahabad you'd indeed have seen an incredible India but not one that the Ministry might have cared to present. In the course of my work I seem to travel for the most part to the really grim parts of India and Uttar Pradesh so far has been the grimmest of the lot. It's a desolate exhausted, heavily littered landscape, with nothing of any beauty to commend it. The buildings consist of bleak block houses that seem to be rendered even duller by the thick layer of dust that appears to cover everything at this time of the year. Occasionally there is a sudden burst of colour on the walls of buildings in the form of lovingly hand painted advertisements for vests and Y front underpants. The animal life consists of skinny dogs and ponderous-looking water buffalo tethered to posts in the baking sun. But there was no chance of my being bored during the journey thanks to my belching, temererious driver who relished bumper driving and playing chicken with oncoming enemy vehicles. At one point he hit a pedestrian but there was no hint of an apology from him, just an exchange of insults with the unfortunate target. And just before entering the buzz of Allahabad we had the delight of an emergency stop just averting a collision with an innocent cyclist who erroneously decided to attempt to cross the road in front of us.
Looking at Uttar Pradesh I suppose you can understand why the circuses that are so antiquated and tacky continue to enjoy audiences in that part of the world. Their splash of colour must rest nicely with the murals of underpants and provide at least some welcome distraction for less than discerning locals.
