For years I suffered through explanations of desi holidays in the local S.F. Bay Area papers. It’s usually a photo in the feature section with a short, two-line description and a whiff of well-meaning leftism. Then Johnny Hart, R.I.P., would embed some baffling Biblical allegory in B.C. every couple of weeks, which I could decode thanks to the xtian Amar Chitra Kathas left by door-to-door Jehovah’s Witnesses who would always flee after trying to convert my mother. (Never argue conversion with the already devout.)

Political cartoonists still do this on major holidays. Wha? There’s a giant clam next to a swimming pool?

Now flip it around. In Bombay, where the papers run photos of mysterious Maharashtran holidays like Dahi Handi and Gudi Padwa without explanation, and a guru has a daily column on the ToI op/ed page, a tabloid had to explain for its readers this crazy little thing called Easter:

It’s a photo in the feature section with a two-line explanation.

Oooh, that looks mighty familiar.