Caught a feather falling

You know you're on the right track when you catch a feather falling in the air. I was walking along the streets of Delhi, which I love surprisingly, and I just reached out my hand and caught it, without even breaking my stride. It wasn't a hawk or a peacock feather, or anything exotic, just a pretty simple white feather. Anyway, just being here is exotic enough for me!
Today I went in to a Hindu temple for the god Hunuman. From the street the temple looks like a six or seven story bright orange statue of an almost naked man with a monkey face wearing lots of jewelery and a fancy loin cloth. After taking of my shoes I entered through the open crocodile-like mouth. Inside there were many marble passage ways, walls covered with mirror mosaic and colorful shrines. Here are the living gods! In each shrine stands a god or goddess and their eyes are bulging out, staring, not at you, not within, but at something awesome, invisible and very real. Little pathways let from one chamber with a god in it to another staircase, until I finally came up almost on the top of Hunuman, looking out over the city. I didn't go all the way to the top. There was no one up there, and it seemed like someone's house. What a cool house, and porch, hidden in the heights of Hunuman's brightly painted head and shoulders! Up there in an arched nook hear Hunuman's head were two bright gold figures, one male one female. Each had their hand raised relaxed, as if they were pouring blessings down on the city below, their eyes too fixed onmisciently on something I cannot see.

Yesterday my experience of religion was different but even MORE powerful. I was so freaked out by the idea of being in Delhi, ignorant and vulnerable as I am, I was nervous to leave the hotel. But after being in planes for over 14 hours, I couldn't stay still another minute, so I went walking almost immediately after arriving. The streets are very wide with big trees growing on each side. Dirty air. After a day and a half exploring here, I have not had one single encounter with anyone who was aggressive or rude. So anyway, I was led to a beautiful Sikh temple by the sound of singing and tabla playing. The music turned out to be live and was being broadcasted on speakers all around. While the Hunuman temple was practically empty, there were many people, all very pious moving clockwise through the Sikh temple. The building is white with huge gold domes and couplets of thin arched windows evenly spaced along the walls. Absolutely everything is white marble-white marble steps, floors, walls inside and out. The walls are also carved with beautiful decorations of plants. Outside the temple is a large shallow pool, perhaps the size of two soccer fields. All around are arch ways and the ground is inlayed with geometrical patterns of stone. The sun setting behind the temple made the delicate