Words of Wonder by Gregory David Roberts

The Indians are the Italians of Asia.
It can be said, certainly, with equal justice,
that the Italians are the Indians of Europe,
but you do understand me, I think.

There is so much Italian in the Indians, and so much Indians in the Italians.
They are both people of the Madonna
– they demand a goddess, even if the religion does not provide one.
Every man in both countries is a singer when he is happy,
and every woman is a dancer when she walks to the shop at the corner.
For them, food is music inside the body, and music is food inside the heart.

The Language of India and the language of Italy,
they make every man a poet,
and make something beautiful from every banalite.
They are nations where love – amore, pyaar – makes a cavalier
of a Borsalino on a street corner,
and makes a princess of a peasant girl,
if only for the second that her eyes meet yours. 

Gregory David Roberts

Gregory David Roberts is an Australian author best known for his novel Shantaram. He is a former heroin addict and convicted bank robber who escaped from Pentridge Prison in 1980 and fled to India, where he lived for ten years.