grain of salt.

Being a white woman in India, I get stared at. A LOT. These are not nice, pleasant, complimentary stares, they are full out open mouth gapes that last for minutes and only do one thing: piss me off.
Now, some days I can handle this better than others. Most of the time I am quite angstful, wishing I had some sort of pellet gun to use for my defense (although I have learned some 'nice' Hindi phrases that help avert a few lasting looks), but every once in a while I am able to find humor in the situation; asking them to take a ridiculous photo with me, or making the worst face possible when they are conspicuously aiming the camera at my face without my permission. Here is an example: (yes, Ali is wearing a fake beard that she purchased on the streets.)

When Kenzie and I went to the Taj Mahal the day after dropping Ali off at the airport, we knew full well what we were getting ourselves into and mentally prepared for the onset of eager middle class Indians who had never seen white people before. We decided that we would be in good moods and take it all with a grain of salt, not getting upset, no matter what. This went fairly well, other than when I was in the toilet and a lady asked to take my picture.

One of our ways of coping was to copy the cheesy 'senior picture' style poses that most of these tourists were doing, because really, they were often quite hilarious. The following pictures are authentic documentation of how the middle class tourists experience this wonder of the world. (I apologize if you do not find this as funny as we did/do, just fast forward to the end if so).

The Taj was especially splendid, since we were in such good moods, and while Agra City was nothing to write home about, the major sights were well worth the visit. 

...and here is an example of me playing the role of the creepy stalker. I highly doubt this man knows what the Green Bay Packers are, let alone where Green Bay, or even the US is, which makes it all the more wonderful.