The Culture of India

CHAPTER 1

"Hooray", I said, "It's finally summer vacation." My ninth grade had just got over and summer vacation had started. I was really excited. I and my mom had planned a very long road trip to my native place which is Ankola, a city in Karnataka. I lived in Mumbai a city in Maharashtra. My name is Parth and my mom is Deepa and I am going to tell you the story of this trip.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning. It was the day we were going to leave. My mom had booked a driver for us. We both had already packed our bags the day before. We were very excited. We had a quick and heavy breakfast. Then, the driver came. I did a final check of the house and then locked the door. I took my bag and then my mom and I sat in the car.

I felt now the trip had really begun. Now we were on the road! We passed towns after towns and after some time I fell asleep on my mom, slap. My mom woke me up at around 1 noon. We had stopped. Since we had left at 8:30 am, and it was 1 in the noon, I guessed we would be around Pune now. I was right. There was a restaurant nearby that had its full address written on a board. It mentioned Pune. My mom told me we had stopped here to eat. Now that she mentioned it, I did feel a bit hungry. We ate. The driver also had some food.

Then, we were on our way again. I slept yet again. When I woke up again, the scenery had changed. There were many farms. Some people were working and some of them waved at me. "These people were so open and happy", I thought. I and my mom played a quiz game for some while and then we both slept again.

The driver woke us up at around 8 pm and asked us whether we wanted to have dinner at a restaurant and then go to a hotel or inn, or go to an inn or hotel first and have dinner there. We chose the latter option. By now, we had reached Kolhapur, a city in southern Maharashtra. We had decided to take the longer coastal route because I had never seen the coastal regions. So tomorrow, we were going to head towards Goa.

CHAPTER 2

I woke up before the others the next day. Then I woke up my mom. We were soon rolling out of the "HAPPY INN". From one side of the car, I could see the distant city. On the other side, I could see farms and workers. I thought about the way landscape can change so quickly. We hadn't had breakfast yet but we had packed some from the inn, so now we ate.

At around lunchtime, we had reached Pernem. It was a city near the Maharashtra and Goa border. It was much cooler here because of the sea breeze. We had a hearty lunch consisting mainly of fish. My mom said we were going to stay in Panaji, the capital of Goa this night and in the morning we would see the fisheries. Then we would move on.

I had packed a magnetic chess board so I and my mom played that while on the way to Panaji, which wasn't too far. We reached Panaji by around 5 pm. There were many fishermen colonies here. It was very windy and cool. We went into an inn and relaxed. We had dinner of fish curry and rice.

CHAPTER 3

The next day in the early morning we went out to see the fishermen fish and bring their catch back. It was very fun. I got to see the various kinds fishes and also saw some days and squids.

We had a healthy breakfast of muesli and milk and then continued on our journey. I could see the ocean stretch far and wide. We reached Ankola just before lunchtime. My grandparents greeted us. We went into their house and relaxed.

The next day we roamed and wandered in around Ankola. There were many temples and churches over here. There were also many pious people. I learned that the staple food here was fish because the town was right on the coast.

CHAPTER 4

On this journey of mine, I had traveled across three states. All had different kinds of people and food. The journey was very diverse and enjoyable. I learned that India is a very culturally diverse country and we should keep it preserved.

When I returned home, I wrote a story about it named "The Culture of India". The story became an instant hit and also very popular. I will surely write another story of another adventure, until then, keep reading.