>perhaps he just has no intention of touring the villages of India for eight months out of the next twelve. Maybe he's just saying it for effect.<

Mumbai has the greatest concentration of dollar millionaires on the planet - India (at least at the top) is swimming in opulence and the servants are just sooo much cheaper than in Malibu or Florida.

An Indian village tour for Rawat means swinging into the nearest hotel with a heliport - buzzing out for a late afternoon darshan and some words of hogwash for the impressionable locals (he'd better watch out for the Communists though) then back to the hotel for dinner.

By and large Indian villages are relatively safe in terms of communicable disease - I don't think we'll see Rawat ministering in Mumbai's slums though.

The problem for Rawat in his concentration on India is that unless he can pick up a major donation stream from the Indian middle class (which seems unlikely) - or some of his fellow millionaires fall for his scam (even more unlikely) then it's difficult to see how he can pay for his Indian jaunts without them being supported by his western cash cow. And unless he spends enough time 'milking' the western cow the money simply is not going to be there for his Indian fun.

And there's still the Amaroo albatross to keep sucking money to Australia.

I fear Serenity will not be replaced any time soon.

Nik