Erika, our group leader, spent all day at the Institute trying unsuccessfully to arrange an audience with the Karmarpa. The rest of us spent the day walking along the Ghats, or shopping, or visiting silk factories.
One of our party did cause a religious dispute, interfering with the national religion, whilst out walking along the ghats. She inadvertently stood on a marked out cricket pitch that some of the locals were going to play on. Big mistake.
A small group of us visited the burning ghat where we were guided by a very knowledgeable Hindu who worked there as a guide one morning a week to benefit his own karma by raising charity money to buy the wood for cremation for those destitute people who arrive at the ghat and wait there to die, hoping that they will be cremated. He was excellent at his task of extracting money, and did make it clear that the money was going to these charity cases.