"Saving Punjab" Response

I read the article "Saving Punjab" from Smithsonian and was captivated by the author's love for and discussion of India. The author creates this great image:

No one gawks here. No one demands money. Everyone seems content simply to be present in this holiest of places. The pilgrims make their slow, reverent clockwise way around the marble platform that edges the pool, past an old man with a white beard reaching nearly to his waist who gently lifts his infant grandson in and out of the sacred waters; a young mother on her knees patiently teaching her little girl the proper way to prostrate herself; a cleanshaven American Sikh, his head covered with a stars-and-stripes handkerchief, praying alongside his brand-new bride, her wrists hidden by bright red bridal bangles.

The description gives you a great sense of the ironies of that life - the "American Sikh." He also talks about the violence and oppression many of these people have experienced, causing me to reflect on the luxuries we experience here that we take for granted. Things like our religious freedom and freedom of speech. As Americans, most of us have never been yanked out of our homes in the middle of the night by a mob or had to flee to another country.