If you look carefully at the top of the group photo of the children, you'll notice red flags atop two flagpoles. They're flags of the CPI....the Communist Party of India. You can just make out the bottom of the hammer-and-sickle adorning the top of the flagpole on the left.
Close-up of aforementioned "hammer-and-sickle", as seen from the roof of our house.
I don't fully understand the role of communism in India, but it's more prevalent than I realized. There are definitely some extremist views here, to be sure. But I don't sense communism is perceived in India the same way it is in the USA, where it's equated more with totalitarianism, atheism, and suppression of freedom (particularly for those of us who grew up during the Cold War years). Something I'd like to learn more about in the future....
