"The cradle of the human race" – Mark Twain

"Where all the dreams of living men have found a home" – Romain Rolland

"Everything rendered in brilliant technicolour" – Keith Bellows

Summarising India is impossible, which is probably why so many people have said so many different things about the place. We do know that when you get inside India, India gets inside you.

I lived in India for three years – not a long time by many standards, but long enough for India to crawl inside my head and latch on tight. I’ll never forget that first cup of masala chai, pungent at first, addictive later. Or walking through the smells and colours of a spice market. Or moving from a cacophony of car horns and other traffic jam noises in Mumbai, to the placid calm of a rainy beach in Goa just three hours later.

It can be overwhelming and it can be frustrating. But India rewards the stayers. Here are my top places to visit if you’re in India any time soon.