On 15 June 2005, India did not just pass a new law. It gave its citizens a power: the power to ask questions. Even more important, it gave them a legal right to demand answers.

How can a country be smaller than a Delhi neighbourhood and still have its own prince, its own borders, its own administration and enough national pride to make a full-sized flag look slightly embarrassed...

What happens when nature pours all her beauty into one small country, wraps its mountains in snow, and humans build trains that climb slopes steep enough to make even gravity nervous? Welcome to Switzerland.

We climbed into a boat that cheerfully ignored personal space and took us remarkably close to Europe’s largest waterfall by sheer volume, the Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen, Switzerland. The closer we got, the louder the roar became. The river seemed to be shouting, “Come closer, brave humans! I have a free facial and a mild cardiac workout for you!"

Our bus rolled into Heidelberg at around ten in the morning. Fresh from a sumptuous breakfast at our Frankfurt hotel, we were energised, curious and ready for another round of European sightseeing. But something changed almost immediately.

The city disappeared almost without warning. One moment we were leaving behind Heidelberg’s old streets, the Neckar River, the ruined red-sandstone castle high on the hillside, and the graceful arches of the Old Bridge. The next, our bus seemed to have entered a different Germany altogether.