Barbers: not only cut your hair, but will trim your eyebrows and the hair on your ears and in your nose. You'll get a massage, facial slapping, and skull-pounding known as "champi," which is where the word "shampoo" comes from.

Enterprising street vendors India's street vendors sell the usual wares, from fake DVDs to earrings to bags of masala popcorn and roasted peanuts. But there's also ear-cleaning, street dentistry and pavement astrology.

Old world train travel: This year marks 162 years since the birth of Indian Railways, which carries more than 20 million passengers a day along 65,000 kilometers of track.

Notorious celebrities Hollywood stars have nothing on Bollywood stars when it comes to entourages, paparazzi and fanatic followings. They might endorse skin-lightening creams, produce terrible films and become embroiled in one scandal after another, but almost nothing can't dim their stardom.

Accessorizing: From Hyderabad pearls to Jaipuri gems, intricate Indian jewelry is coveted the world over, and local women are usually dripping in it.

Comfort food From Mumbai's Mohammed Ali Road for kebabs to Amritsar's Lawrence Road for Makhan Fish, India's addictive food leaves no room for worries over waistlines. Steaming chicken kathi rolls, crunchy sweet and sour bhel puri or creamy lassi from even the starkest of roadside shacks are bewilderingly tasty and satisfying.

Gesticulating India has more than 800 dialects, but it's the head-shaking and wrist-flicking gestures that are the most dramatic means of communication and an inherent part of an Indian's genetic makeup. In South India, pointing a thumb toward the mouth can mean anything from "what do you want?" to "have you eaten?" To make matters more confusing, Indians will often shake their heads from right to left to signify that they are, in fact, following what you're saying and agreeing, rather than disagreeing.

Obsessing over cricket When the British left India, they left two real legacies: the railways and cricket. Not just the preserve of the upper classes wearing club ties, drinking Pimms and eating cucumber sandwiches, cricket in India is a way of life, enjoyed by every class, age and sex, while cricketers are revered as gods

Festivals For the Lathmar Holi festival, revelers smear themselves in colored powder. Spare clothes optional. For the Lathmar Holi festival, revelers smear themselves in colored powder. Spare clothes optional. With so many religions and cultures existing side by side in India, it's rare for a week to go by without some sort of celebration. Indians will normally extend invitations to anyone and everyone from next door neighbors to stray travelers who they may have met that morning on a train.

Cities in the mountains India's cities in the mountains, or "hill stations," are walkers' havens. Less well known than other hill stations, Matheran is one of many we love. Hidden between the jungle-topped Sahyadri hills 80 kilometers east of Mumbai, it was originally used by the British to escape the Bombay heat, and is free from fume-spewing vehicles while being accessible on horseback, on foot or by the narrow-gauge toy train that trundles along tiny tracks.

Not Applicable

Monsoon Wedding

Sultan

Salim

My name is Khan

Barfi!

3 Idiots

Rang de Basanti

Udaan

Swades

Like stars on earth

Not Applicable

Heard the song

Seen the movie

Both

Neither

Yes

No

Priyanka Chopra -- Quantico

Deepika Padukone -- The return from Xander Cage

Irrfan Khan -- Inferno, The Da Vinci Code, Life of Pi

Aishwarya Rai -- Pink Panther 2, Bride and the Prejudice

Anil Kapoor -- Slumdog millionaire, 24

Anupam Kher -- Silver linings playbook, Bend it like Beckham

Freida Pinto -- You will meet a tall, dark stranger, Rise to the planet of the apes

Om Puri -- Gandhi, Charlie Wilson's War

Gulshan Grover -- Jungle book, Prisoners of the sun

Kal Penn -- Harold and Kumar, How i met your mother

Not Applicable

Homemade yogurt

Chicken Tandoori

Panipuri

Kheer

Badam Kheer

Kulfi

Dhokla

Vada

Kati roll

Chicken curry

Not Applicable