Days earlier, I had visited the city of turbans and beards, Amritsar, the Sikh holy shrine in the Punjab region. My desire, like that of millions of Sikhs, was to see the magnificent Golden Temple, which preserves within its walls the sacred scripture of Adi Granth. The hospitality was immaculate. Instead of me taking pictures of the faithful, they were asking to be photographed with me.

— Daniel Shoer Roth, a columnist for the Miami Herald, writes about his trip to India.