Wham! After being in transit for so long, that fresh outside air smacks you in the face when you finally step outside of the airport and take that first deep breath of non-circulated stale airplane air. It took forever to get here. After hours and hours you got to the airport, flew on the plane...

Varanasi -- The leg of the stool started to buckle underneath him, and I warned my friend of the imminent collapse. "No worries," he said, "I have a feel for the balance of Indian things." The balance of Indian things? He was right -- there's a lot of precariousness here. Yet I hadn't realized that...