Hursts in India

Monday was Krishna Janmashtami, birthday of the Hindu god Krishna and a national holiday. In the evening we attended a Kathak and BrijRass style dance and music performance at the India International Centre.  We  especially  enjoyed the five person live band composed of  sitar, hand organs, flute, drums, percussion and amazing vocals.   Krishna is portrayed on the left and his consort Radha on the right. Shopping in Janpath we found this colorful street entertainer.   On Wednesday we visited the Baha'i House of Worship, aka Lotus Temple.  The resident architect had been taught by missionaries years before and immediately spotted us.  We had a long and interesting conversation.    We celebrated Grant's birthday with a guided tour of the Qutb Minar complex i n Mehrauli, only about 20 minutes southwest from our place.  The complex contains building from around 1150 up to the British Era....

Wednesday we had dinner with the Winters family from the ward.  They are Anglo-Indian (another distinct and interesting culture) from Calcutta with two young adult children.  We were surprised that they still have very strong feelings about being caught between the Anglo and Indian cultures as "half-castes" and not fully accepted by either. The son had been working in Dubai but came home to help with his mom who is recovering from cancer and surgery. The daughter, Melissa, is into K-pop, regularly posting her "covers" on YouTube. They live in a dense maze of narrow streets that the Uber drivers refuse to negotiate so we were dropped off on a corner where Brother Winter found us.  We followed him through the muddy, noisy and crowded streets, into an unlit garage and up some dark, narrow, and damp stairs to his apartment.  We ate on a low coffee table, some sitting on a bed and some in chairs. (Many Indian families just eat sitting on the floor, so this was ...