Here's a tip for anyone traveling to India anytime in the future- if a monkey jumps on your car, don't take it's picture. It's handler, someone who has taken it from the wild and trained it for this purpose is right behind and ready to harass you for money. And by harass I mean actually open the window and reach inside while yelling "money, money!" Now, if you're lucky like us, you will have a native with you ready to tell them off on Hindi.
Hindi is a fantastic language. Aside from their extensive alphabet and number system that gives a unique name to every single number up to 99, there are only two conjugations for the present verb "to be." I thanked a man from whom I bought a souvenir in Hindi in an attempt to be cultural and not some snotty American expecting everyone to speak English, and the plan backfired and he told me just to say "thank you." That's what I get for trying to be diverse...
I find it ironic that photos were not permitted of the most beautiful marvels of architecture I have ever visited. A couple of other volunteers and I naively thought we could sneak in our smartphones to act as cameras, but it turns out the Akshardham Temple security rivals that of the strictest airports. As is the norm here, there were separate entry lines for ladies and gents, and the lady checking to see if we tried to sneak things in was very grabby- we all felt quite violated. She would have made a terrifying TSA agent.
I have a LOT to say about the temple, enough to make up an entire post, so that one is coming later.
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