Full Stop India

A popular stop over point for tourists on their way to Bikaner and Jaisalmer, Mandawa and the Shekhawati Region of Rajasthan are home to several fascinating well-preserved painted havelis, forts and temples. The elegantly restored fort-palace Castle Mandawa sits smack in the middle of this small, dusty village roughly halfway between Delhi and Bikaner, India.
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“The basic structure of a Chorten consist of a square foundation symbolizing the earth, a dome symbolizing water, and thirteen tapering steps of enlightenment symbolizing the element of fire. These steps lead to a stylized parasol, the symbol of wind, which is topped in the ethereal sphere by the well-known ‘twin-symbol’ uniting sun and moon, [...]

Trojan Guest House was not our first destination upon reaching Tabo, India, high up in the Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh. The managers of the Hotel Mount View, Kalpa, where we stayed a few nights earlier, suggested a guest house for us near the monastery in Tabo. Unfortunately with the time of our travel being the [...]

Rented buses to transport the guests who had walked from the groom’s house to the roadside were now arriving. Men were still dancing, kids were still lighting fireworks. The celebration, I was soon learning, had just begun for the night.
Rakesh drove me and some friends to a tea stall several kms away in a neighboring [...]

We returned to the groom’s house around 6 P.M. to find the groom dressed in his wedding suit and head-dress. A professional videographer had been hired to film the night’s events which were already underway. Two chairs were scrambled together for Rakesh and I to sit on with a bird’s eye view of the action.