INDIA: MOUNTAINS, RIVER, DESERT AND MORE

In a 45- to 60-minute PowerPoint program, followed by a lively question-and-answer session, I offer an engaging first-hand glimpse, in words and colorful photos, of the people and the visual splendors of India. Although India has changed greatly in recent years, most of the aspects I talk about are rooted in a timeless India, in her physical splendors, ancient traditions, and exotic beauty.

On foot, camel, elephant, rickshaw, barque, and train through India, I take the audience through this fabled country of prismatic views.

My talk, with vivid illustrations, covers:

• My start in Himalayan India in the far northeast, where I ran a half-marathon at 11,000 feet and saw four of the ten highest mountains in the world
• A visit to the old British hill station and tea region of Darjeeling
• An overnight journey on the Great Indian Railway where my husband and I shared our compartment with a stranger
• A dawn boat ride on the the Ganges, where pilgrims bathe in its sacred waters
• A Hindu festival in the holy city of Varanasi
• A sunrise visit to the sublime Taj Mahal
• The elaborate ghost town of Fatehpur Sikri
• Keoladeo Ghana National Park, a world-famous bird sanctuary
• Jaipur, the pink city, capital of the State of Rajasthan
• The best Bollywood theater in Asia
• Secrets of snake charmers
• A two-day camel safari on the western Thar desert
• A stroll among the thousands of camels at the Pushkar camel fair.
• But the images that will stay with you the longest are the charismatic faces of the friendly Indian people I met along the way.