all around, young people ask me for my photograph. at the Taj Mahal, boys in their teens and early twenties snapped pictures of me discreetly on their cell phones-- their friends posing as blockers. i caught many of them; i glared.

my tour guide/ 'security guard' warned me of this after it happened. i asked why. he said, 'because you are pretty.'

i countered, 'because i don't look indian?' 'yes,' he said, 'that.' but i suspect it is less not being indian and more not wearing a long, loose, flowing sari with a scarf appropriately covering my chest.

a Beautiful woman today on the plane likewise asked if she could take my picture. 'you are sweet,' she said.

later

'i love your fair skin,' said the jewelry man. 'i washed my hands so hard, but they are not like yours.'