>But that's just me. I love to study history and languages and travelling gives me an excuse to do it.

Wow!

>I'm glad started travelling young the way I did and have been able to continue doing so ( have to admit in India I had trouble with *not* being a vegan <g> but it was certainly worth it on so many other levels and I am glad English *is* a 'local' language as I'm afraid I had no gift for Hindi. )

Hindi and other languages (incl. my mother tongue Gujarati) are based more on pronunciations than just plain simple alphabets. I myself have problems to write the correct spelling, for eg. a long pronounced E and a short pronounced one, I write them all the same one way or the other, maybe I need to have a hearing aid to help me distinguish the sounds :)

Next time you are in India you are welcome to call on me and if distance permitting maybe we could meet.