It’s no secret that we love to travel and do so as much as time and money allow. We’ve jokingly said that we will go anywhere that isn’t under a State Department advisory. Truth be told, that’s not totally a joke, but it is also certainly true that you won’t find us booking a flight…

  O Goddess Ganga! You are the divine river from heaven, you are the savior of all the three worlds, you are pure and restless, you adorn Lord Shiva’s head. O Mother! May my mind always rest at your lotus feet. ~~From Adi Shankaracharya, Ganga Strotram, 8th Century   Muslims make a pilgrimage, or Hajj,…

Kolkata, or Calcutta, as the British called it, just wrapped up yet another festival celebrating yet another god. This is apparently the season of big festivals honoring the VIG (Very Important Gods); it’s time to celebrate the  bigwigs of the Hindu religion. The Hindu faithful have festivals for too many gods to count, but many…

Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism. Those are just the main eight religions of India. Roughly, here is the breakdown: 80% Hindu, 14% Muslim, 6% the remaining six. There are also subsects, but we won’t go there in this post. I. Give. Up. I had every intention of taking a deep dive into…

    Last evening, Hemesh, our cruise manager, told us that today we would visit what was once the richest city in all of the world. That is quite a declaration and we were a bit skeptical since we are in rural India and West Bengal doesn’t look like the home of a very prosperous…

Our guide for the first week in India was a wonderful man named Yogesh, or “Yogi,” as we called him. He told us that you need three good things to drive in India. Those three things, he said, are 1) good horn, 2) good brakes, and 3) good luck. A week or so in India…