Illustration/Uday Mohite

We had been quietly floating down the Ganga, watching fishermen on modest noukas, families bathing at the ghats, harvested jute stacks, and schoolgirls waving from the banks, when a series of spectacular domes atop gigantic buildings swung into view. Not only did they arrogantly dominate the skyline for miles, they were copies of the architecture of the Duomo Cathedral in Florence, Italy. Now what was such a building with European Christian architecture doing in a Hindu temple, in the otherwise modest town of Mayapur in Nadia district in West Bengal? It was the headquarters of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). We might associate Lord Krishna with Vrindavan, Mathura and gopis, but it turns out Krishna has a secret taste for Italian architecture which you wouldn't have suspected. The famous Govinda's restaurant served pizzas and Subhadra's Kitchen specialised in Belgian waffles. As PG Wodehouse would say, I inspected the mind. It boggled. Inside the compound, there was an enormous mela, with phuchka (panipuri) stalls, and shops for toys, rosaries, liver tonics and more. Finally, in a series of enormous temples were statues of Krishna, the gopis, and of Srila Prabhupada. In fact, I had been invited to join my sister Sarayu and her friends on a week-long cruise, called the Bengal Saga, along the Ganga. We took the ship from Azimganj, about 217 km north of Kolkata, stopping off to explore historic towns along the river, including Murshidabad, Matiari, Mayapur, Kalna, the Portuguese port of Bandel and the former French colony Chandannagore, before reaching Kolkata.