In Israel, were you for some reason not able to know the age of people you meet, this should do the trick. Ask about visiting India, and Israelis neatly divide into two categories: those who will say their son or daughter visited (and are thereby headed for middle age) and those who say they themselves are back from an extended visit (and are, therefore, in university or the early years of their working lives).

More than 40,000 Israeli 20-somethings head out to India each year after their mandatory attachment to the Israeli Defence Forces, two years for women, three for men. An equal number take off for Latin America.

For this gap year of sorts — the visits are typically five-six months long — the road passes through Goa, Manali, Pushkar. Mention of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai landmarks usually draws a shrug of unfamiliarity.

Those cities get Israelis who clock in their visits in terms of days, not months: the business travellers. Trade with India is rapidly increasing: last year it was $2.7 billion. (This does not include the defence sector. That area of cooperation is ruled by confidentiality and figures are not forthcoming.) This year non-defence trade is expected to be $3 billion.

Israeli investment has diversified from IT, pharma and telecom to real estate and infrastructure. But diamonds account for a major chunk of bilateral trade, with roughly 40 families from Gujarat dominating.

It would seem that these worlds come into contact only on flights in and out of Israel. On the connecting flight from Amman to Tel Aviv, an overheard conversation was revealing. “How do you do it, this travel without a city-wise itinerary,” asked the bespectacled Indian executive.

... contd.