23. Raja Rao, On the Ganga Ghat. Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, 1993, p. 112. Subsequent citations from this edition are indicated in the text parenthetically by page number.
24. Sankara, Ātmabodhaḥ: Self-Knowledge, trans. Swami Nikhilananda. Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1967, p. 261, verse 11.
1. A hospice for travellers, mainly pilgrims.
1. A stone rising out of the ground, carved with images of the gods.
1. Families for thousands of years, so it is said, have inherited these privileges.
1. Famous for its association with Sri Krishna.
1. Both a cafe and a restaurant are called hotels.
2. Bhedia here confused the heroes of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
1. Gossip.
2. An orthodox Hindu woman never mentions her husband’s name and always refers to him in third-person plural.
3. E=MC2: In relativity theory, it represents ‘Energy is equal to M-mas x C2—the square of the speed of light.’
1. Banarasidas — Devotee of Benares, a fairly common name all over north India.
1. A romantic operatic play.
2. Himavathi means ‘daughter of the snows’.
3. The deeply revered contemporary woman saint.
1. A tribal people of central India.
1. A thousand instructions.