OM Sweet OM“
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time
—T.S. Eliot, from “Little Gidding, Four Quartets
I don’t know India very well. I only lived there for 40 years. That is to say, I lived in one of the many worlds that make up this sub-continental universe. Specifically, I was born in New Delhi, into a small but disproportionately powerful Westernized, English-speaking, private school-going set, brought up in the legacy of the British Empire. We are the “children of Macaulay” -Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, advisor to Queen Victoria, who devised the economic-administrative-educational system that relegated all of Indian culture to a kind of carnival side-show and exalted the values and methods of the European Enlightenment to the status formerly accorded to Patanjali, Valmiki, Charaka, Kalidasa, Aryabhata and Adi Sankara. “
"We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, -a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.”
-Macaulay's Minute on Education, February 2, 1835
News flash-it worked! Exhibit A: the present writer, who is far happier writing in English than in either of the two languages of India that are his heritage ( Hindi and Malayalam). Exhibit B: all those nice, compliant, English-speaking students “enriched” by “terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature” who have been taking jobs away from the original English speakers, all the way from the vertiginous heights of Silicon Valley to your bank’s call center in Bangalore. Hey, Macaulay’s strategy worked just fine for 100 years (and still lives on in Indian minds in our new caste distinction between English speakers and the rest), but no one can be expected to predict the unintended historical consequences of their actions forever.
This overlong prologue is simply to say that my journeys this year took me to Indias I had never been before: a freezing ashram on the banks of the holy river Ganga, a tent city at the Sangam, or confluence of the three rivers for the largest gathering of humans in the world, hundreds of millions of people gathering for a dip in the river in search of absolution.
That’s enough about me - this is an account of my visit to India in January-February and I thought it might help to understand where I’m writing from - not here, not there, some kind of 3rd place.
“For me and perhaps for other immigrant writers, there’s a death and a series of rebirths.”
-Bharati Mukherjee
Following Mother Ganga: Parmarth Ashram
The plan was originally to visit Parmarth Ashram in Rishikesh, among the holiest cities in India, nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas. The Ganga begins in Gangotri, approximately 160 miles further up and it is clean, cold and bracing in this town, the first of many ancient and modern cities along the way. We will be visiting two of them: Allahabad-Prayagraj and Kashi-Varanasi - later in this journey.
Parmarth Ashram is an extraordinary organization, known for its long-standing devotion to preserving the Ganga and the communities and environments along the river. Even more unusually, it is the only major Hindu institution in India (that I know of -please send any others you may know) to be run by a woman. And not just a woman, an American from Los Angeles - Sadhvi Bhagwati Saraswati. The head of the Ashram is a man, HH Param Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji, but I think of Sadhvi as the COO - the one who gets things done!
The Ashram in Rishikesh hummed with the energy of people walking to classes, studying the statues of the gods, drinking cup after cup of chai. There’s some great white-water rafting nearby but here, everyone is a pilgrim or in service to the pilgrims. Weather advisory: Rishikesh is very cold - funny to say that coming from New York, but they don’t have central heating and the rushing river makes everything just a little more chilly. I went to sleep every night wearing the contents of my backpack and even then it took a while to get warm. You have been warned.
If you know about the Beatles Indian episode, you already know Rishikesh - the ashram they visited is still here as well as a much-trodden “Beatles Cafe’.” Next time.
The Sangam in Allahabad/Prayagraj
The Maha Kumbh Mela (Great Kumbh Festival) is the largest gathering of people on earth, taking place once every 12 years at one of four sacred sites in India: Prayagraj (Allahabad), Haridwar, Ujjain, and Nashik. Astrological alignments that took place this year will not come again in 144 years, so this Kumbh broke all records, with anywhere from 500-600 million pilgrims seeking spiritual liberation and purification on the banks of the river.“Sangam” means “union”: specifically, in this case, the union or confluence of 3 rivers: the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. This is what makes Prayagraj the holiest of holy cities on the Ganga, calling out to the devout to come and find absolution in its waters.
About that: I have received all kinds of responses to the “Ganga-snaan” (dip in the Ganga) from “hope you disinfected?” to “you are blessed.” As I rose from my brief, chilly dip, it came to me that the blessing was not in the waters: as with everything in the world, it was about the intention that impels one to come to the river. The world is what we make of it.
Once again I stayed at the Parmarth Niketan Ashram camp, a city of tents huddled at one of the ghats (steps to the river where ceremonies are conducted), attending yoga classes, kirtan, and other devotions, led by Swami Chidanand Saraswati and Sadhvi Bhagwati Saraswati. Never have I witnessed, or experienced such a universal outpouring of devotion, palpable in the people and in the very air and water around me- the sound of hymns and mantras and teachings everywhere bringing you back to the pilgrimage amidst all the distractions
The Ashram’s charitable activities continued alongside - I witnessed a free prosthetic limb camp, where those unable to afford prosthetics could get fitted and return to full mobility.
Kashi-Varanasi
Varanasi is the next great holy city on the river and since it was a few hours away, I took a day-trip there: walking barefoot to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, taking a boat to witness the famed “Aarti” -devotional offerings to God - held every night on the banks of the Ganga, and discovering the dessert of the gods, an ambrosial milk froth-and-saffron concoction known as “malaiyyo.” Benares Hindu University is the most famous institution of higher learning here, but I discovered another, one of the world’s largest Sanskrit universities, the Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya. Varanasi deserves more time here and I can think of no better time or occasion than the Mahindra Kabira festival of spiritual poetry held there every year: this year it is 19 Dec 2025 - 21 Dec 2025.
The Jaipur Literature Festival
The Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), often hailed as the "greatest literary show on Earth," is a renowned annual cultural and literary festival held in Jaipur, Rajasthan. It was established in 2006 by writers Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple, and led by Sanjoy Roy and Teamwork Arts, it has grown into one of the world’s largest and most prestigious literary gatherings, attracting authors, writers, scholars, artists, critics, thinkers, and readers from across the globe.
Over 18 years the festival has hosted some 8000 writers at its flagship event in India alone, reached a billion people around the world online and 5 million in person. This year, there were 4 Nobel winners (that I saw) and many Pulitzer and national book award winners. Books in lesser-known languages find translations here and get picked up for Netflix or Amazon Prime. Here are a few randomly selected sessions:
"Virtual You: The Digital Twin Revolution"
"The Lion House - a history of the 16th century Ottoman sultanate"
"New America"
"Gandhi: The Man and the Mahatma"
"David Hare: A Life in Theater and Film"
"Electoral Democracy: The Year That Was"
It was a privilege to be the venue manager for one of the halls this year, and getting to meet great writers, statesmen and poets backstage.
Look out for upcoming JLF events in New York, Boulder, Seattle, Houston and Chapel Hill and plan ahead for Jaipur next year.
Nrityagram: The Odissi dance village outside Bangalore
Nrityagram is a one-of-a-kind collective of artistes, a secluded village built by the dancers themselves, where dance is a way of life. They are a thriving collective that embodies and upholds the holistic traditions associated with the classical arts of India, nurtures Odissi dance professionals through the Gurukula system, performs on a global stage and is forging a community through outreach. Look out for their appearances in New York, where their patrons are Mark Morris and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
My dear friend Lynn Fernandez is the managing trustee of Nrityagram and I was privileged to be able to spend a few days in the verdant quietude of the village, with nothing but birdsong and the sound of “payal” the anklets with bells worn by all Indian classical dancers. It was like a decompression chamber, after the travels in the North and in Bombay.
Back to the ancestral homeland-Kerala
Kerala’s history as a global crossroads spans millennia, shaped by its strategic maritime position and spice wealth. Trade networks linked it to the Middle East as early as the 3rd millennium BCE, with Arabs and Phoenicians exchanging spices like cinnamon and pepper at ports such as Muziris. By the 9th century CE, Chinese traders were importing silk and porcelain into Kerala while exporting spices and Brazilwood. European powers-first the Portuguese (15th century), then the Dutch and British-vied for control of Kerala’s “black gold” (pepper), transforming Kochi into a hub of colonial trade. (Look closely at the next pepper-shaker you purchase- chances are it is still from somewhere near my grandmother’s home).
Religious diversity emerged early: Christianity arrived via St. Thomas in 52 CE, fostering the Syrian Christian community, of which I am a member, albeit belonging to the section that moved on to Catholicism with the coming of the Portuguese. Jewish settlements began in 1000 CE when King Bhaskara Ravi Varma granted Anjuvannam to Joseph Rabban, creating a thriving community later centered in Kochi. Muslim communities formed through Arab traders who settled by the 7th–9th centuries, spreading Islam peacefully via commerce and intermarriage.
Kerala’s allure as the “Land of Spices” sustained its global influence, with cardamom, pepper, and cinnamon driving economic and cultural exchanges. This interplay forged a unique multicultural identity, evident in its architecture, cuisine, and syncretic traditions.
Kerala is also the birthplace of 3 indigenous forms of classical dance and the home of ayurveda and after thinking about it for years, I finally booked myself for a 10-day detox at the beautiful Sanjeevanam Ayurvedic hospital outside Kochi.
And that’s where I will end this travel diary, resting amid the palm trees and peppery breezes of Kerala, a land I am only now beginning to appreciate in all its complexity and beauty.
Perhaps you can go home again.