John J. Putman
Ganges Plain, India

My favorite place? India. Not the shimmering Taj Mahal or green Malabar Coast, but the dusty plain of the Ganges, brown and dry, seared by heat. Life is stripped to its elements: a fire, a pot, lentils, an ox, a cottage. The family welcomes, shares. The women wear gold bobs in their noses, saris bright as flowers. All await the monsoon; its rains will turn the fields green, enable life. Nature rules. Free of the opulence of our consumer societies, I can here see life more clearly.

John J. Putman is a writer-editor at NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.