No. 27

Prayer Calls: Although an estimated 80% of India's current population practices Hinduism, the Muslim presence here is inescapable. Islam is India's largest minority religion and Delhi at least is dotted with gorgeous grand mosques built during periods of Islamic rule in the country. When not seen, their closeness is felt in the melodic daily prayer calls that elevate the usual din of car horns and dog barks to something more like Eastern urban poetry. Although we feel no compulsion to pray when we hear them, we are still becoming very fond of their lyrical beauty and hypnotic simplicity. This senitment probably changes the first time we have a hotel room facing a giant loudspeaker, like this one, projecting from the 400 year-old Jamad Masjid mosque in Old Delhi.