15. My English speaking guide, for the trip to Agra, fails to live up to expectations.
I want to talk to him about Hinduism, but even if his English were better, I don't think he would be interested. To him, and other Hindus I've tried to talk to, religion is like air, whether it's good or bad, you still have to breathe it.
What's the point in questioning it, just be grateful that it exists.
In a way, Hinduism resembles Judaism, in that it is as much a cultural life as well as a religious life. A person might adopt Hinduism, but to BE Hindu, one must be born Hindu. And so, India has the same place in the lives of Hindus as Israel has for Jews, being both a religious homeland and a cultural homeland.

I turn to discussion towards cricket, but even this topic confounds our mutual efforts. Neither he, nor anyone else, has been able to explain "overs" to me.
Lan, my driver, admitsu that he doesn't speak "very good English" and it's difficult to disagree with him. Or agree, for that matter.

Strange to see six-pointed stars and swastika- like images all over India, but they don't mean what they do in the west. The star in the sign for a school, the the swastika-sign is an ancient Hindu symbol found on temple walls.

Go to london, see Big Ben.
Go to Paris, see the Eiffel Tower.
Go to India, see the Taj Mahal. Strange how this last day in India shares so many aspects of my last day in Jordan/Israel.
Driving a long way, to get to a flea-bitten hotel, in order to catch my flight at an impossibly early time in the morning.

The Taj Mahal is spectacular. in a really good way.
One billion people are spectacular in an entirely different way.
It may take me a while to sort the two out.

My camera battery died on the last picture of the Taj Mahal!

It is a mausoleum, after all.

Just like it gave out at Petra.


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