Diana Eck's book is Banaras: City of Light (1982). She is a professor of comparative religion and Indian studies at Harvard and founded the Pluralism Project.
The museum is the Smithsonian Institution.
Alain Daniélou died in 1994, aged 86.
The Marshall McLuhan scene is in Woody Allen's Annie Hall.
Ahmad Shah Massoud's wife, Sediqa, is Afghan. Massoud was killed on 9 September 2001.