beppe, thank you so much for selecting this book and volunteering to lead the discussion. I have wanted to read this book for awhile so it was good motivation. I agree with the previous comments that the prose was to be savored, and I had to force myself to slow down. Here are a few of my initial thoughts.
I would like to comment on the title since I don't think anyone has discussed that yet. Forster wrote that he was influenced by the writing of Walt Whitman. In fact, the title of the book was taken from Whitman's poem
Passage to India which you can find here:
http://classiclit.about.com/library/...agetoindia.htm
Whitman's poem has similar themes of human and spiritual connectedness. It has a very optimistic celebration of globalization and is looking cheerfully towards the future of universal love (including interracial marriage). Forster's book contrasts with the poem to highlight what the challenges are of this globalization and that even interracial friendship is complicated and not really sustainable. I really liked how the book ended with "no, not yet" and "no, not there". Almost as if Forster were directly responding to Whitman's poem.
I like to visualize the places that I am reading about to try and immerse myself further in the novel. A quick google search revealed that the Marabar Caves were modeled after the Barabar Caves. I found this website which had many photos of that area and an interesting tourist story to go with it.
http://www.mapability.com/travel/p2i/barabar_1.php