Religion in India

Even the most cursory of introductions to India, outside of Chicken Tikka Massala (technically British anyway) and Sachin's search for his hundreth hundred (Cricket reference, feel free to ignore...), will explain that religion is at the very heart and soul of Indian culture and society. I cannot delve too deep, a novel of thousands of pages would never suffice to explain the differences and complexities of the various religions, as well as within Hinduism.

So, only a Rafi's eye view will suffice. Which will attempt not to invoke too much prejudice or be too provokative (this may well result in epic failure). Sidestepping the awkwardness of the numerous swastikas, I have decided to stay on safer religious territory with the elephant, a famous Hindu symbol due to the God Ganesha. Except this one was Jewish. I introduce you to my beginner's guide to inter-faith relations:

















The elephant could have been based here (but, alas, wasn't):













Any bible-reader will tell you of the warnings invoked in the story of the golden calf. Perhaps the Israelites problem was actually they just couldn't build one to match. This was the second biggest in India. 6ft tall and 5 tonnes (disclaimer: all facts in this blog are solely the opinion of the author and most often made up on the spot).






















I have also been making friends with various religious and cultural monuments. I know that readers of the blog will appreciate my intellectual connection with model elephants (buried for thousands of years) as well as model painted horses.































But I save the best and most important religious monument for last. Whilst my teenage years were practically a homage to Pro Evolution Soccer (versions 1-73), never could a computer-based monument quite live up to this testiment to Super Mario. Respect.