This is just a miscellaneous few bits of information. The first photo was our first day in Delhi, shortly after arriving at our hotel. I put the timer on the camera and took our photo. We were given flower lays and bindis at least a handful of times in India. A bindi (pr. Bin Dee) is the red dot on our foreheads. A bindi represents the mystical third eye. It’s placement is a major nerve point on the human body and seat of concealed wisdom. For those purposes, both men and women might have a bindi. The bindi is also a symbol, somewhat like a wedding ring, for married women to wear. It’s a red color because red brings good fortune. That is very traditional. Today, the bindi has become more of a fashion accessory and we saw different colors and also such things as sparkles included in the bindi. Those smiles are the smiles of two people who just got to India and were really happy and excited about it.

The Indian people were very friendly to us. Many people spoke English and lots of them wanted to try out their English by speaking to us. People also seemed to like to have us take their photo with our digital cameras and then come and see themselves in the photo. I just included this next photo because there were many friendly people and many people who wanted to try out their English with us at this stop. This was at the Raj Ghat in Delhi which is a national shrine of the cremation site of Mahatma Gandhi. He was cremated here in 1948 on the banks of the Yamuna River. Only today, the river is half a mile away due to floods and course changes. There were many school groups visiting the day we were here and many of them really flocked to us. In the case of this photo, I liked their school uniforms and they seemed to be having fun. I just stopped a fair distance away and took out my camera and they instantly started to pose and wave to me. They had some great smiles.

The cow in the third photo is a ‘holy cow’. Not all cows in India are holy cows. The whole business about holy cows was a bit confusing but I’ll explain what I heard about it. The Hindus apparently believe that cows are a holy animal or sacred because a cow is or could be a reincarnation of a human soul. Respect for all animals is a main theme of the Hindus. But of course, not everyone in India is a Hindu. Traditionally, India households have or had a cow and a dog. These are part of the family, somewhat like our pets – and we wouldn’t kill one of our pets. Also, Indians believe that they all have four mothers: Mother India, Mother Ganges (river), Mother Cow, and their biological mother. Cows provide milk for yogurt, butter, oil, and other basics. Cows also provide power for plowing fields. Our guide said that only a few cows in India are actually “holy cows”. During our stay in India, we only saw three ‘holy cows’ and you can see one here. Our guide said that a cow only becomes a holy cow when a Hindu holy man deems it so. It might be because of the date of a cows birth and some monumental event or something. But at some point, a Hindu holy man deems a cow a holy cow and that’s what it takes. The holy cows that we saw were very clean and prettied up with painted horns and pulling wagons. My guess is that a holy cow can make someone some money, but I never heard all the ramifications around holy cows.