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10 books about India that are better than Shantaram

Mariellen — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:44:12 +0000

Shantaram and Eat, Pray, Love are not the only books about India: Here are 10 of my favourites

There are two types of people in the world: those who think Shantaram is a great book; and those who think it is a spew of virulent air, driven by the criminal mind and maniacal ego of its Australian pseudo-writer. I guess you can tell which type of person I am. This post is 10 suggestions for books about India that are better than Shantaram.

I tried to read Shantaram when I was living in Delhi, but ended up literally throwing it across the room. I thought it was poorly written and more about the fevered imagination of its writer than about India. In fact, it offers very little insight into India, if you ask me; and the longer I spend in India getting to know it, the more true this statement becomes.

Since that time, however, I’ve read lots and lots of book about India, by Indians and foreigners, and almost all of them are much, much better. Except Eat, Pray, Love. If you actually want to know something about India — rather than about an ego-driven writer — I suggest the following 10 books, in no particular order.

(If you want to learn more about a book, below, hover your cursor over the image; and to buy it, simply click on the image and you will be whisked to the U.S. Amazon site.)

1. A Search in Secret India by Paul Brunton. A cult classic, this book was published in 1934 and it’s about the author’s sincere, strange and ultimately inspiring search for spiritual truth in India. After many false starts, dead-ends and kooky run-ins, he lands at the feet of Sri Ramana Maharishi. Which in itself a metaphor for the spiritual journey. This is the book that introduced Sri Ramana Maharishi to the west (and he still remains one of the greatest Indian saints of the 20th century).

2. Empire of the Soul by Paul William Roberts. This is the book I hope Shantaram readers graduate to read. It is about two lengthy trips journalist Roberts took to India, separated by many years; and about how he reconciles some of the extraordinary experiences he had there. Roberts is known for hard-boiled books about war-torn countries like Iraq, so when he writes about his spiritual awakening, it rings true.

3. Out of India by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. The introduction to this book of short stories is alone worth the price of the book. It’s hands-down the best piece of writing I have ever read about what it is like to be a foreigner in India. Absolutely priceless. If you recognize her name, it’s because she was the screen-writer for the Merchant-Ivory film productions (including A Passage to India, see #6.)

4. India’s Unending Journey by Mark Tully. Mark Tully was the BBC’s chief correspondent in India for many years. He has the character to overcome his profession’s limitations and admit that the chief thing he learned in India was to be certain only about uncertainty. And he says it’s the most valuable thing he has ever learned.

5. India: A Million Mutinies Now by V.S. Naipul. What can I say? It’s the classic. Personally, I admire this book more than I like it.

6. Passage to India by E.M. Forster. Very recently, the Consul General of India in Toronto — a remarkably cultured woman — told me she thought Forster really captured India in this book. I told her I feel like Fielding. Mutual understanding was firmly established. It was the best book I studied at university, I still remember the discussion about the meaning of the Marabar Caves. The film is good too!

7. Maximum City by Suketu Mehta. This is one of the best books I have read recently. It has an ambitious scope and many small wonderful moments, and seemed Dickensian to me in its attempt to capture the spirit of the times in a big, broiling, magnificent city. This is Bombay (Mumbai): gangsters and hero cops, foot-path poets and down-to-earth movie stars. You will learn a lot more about what Bombay is really about in this book than in Shantaram.

8. Kim by Rudyard Kipling. This is my favourite book of all time. If you’ve never read it, throw out everything you think you know about Kipling, who was the most famous writer of his time. The book follows the story of teenage Kim, son of an Irish immigrant and ‘friend of all the world’, who travels the roads of India with his guru, an elderly Tibetan lama on a spiritual quest for a river of enlightenment. It is unique and uncanny in its ability to absolutely immerse you into the scene and the story. You can feel the oppressive heat of the plains and the crisp air of the mountains. You can imagine Kim’s excitement about rejoining his friend on the road after a stint locked-up at school. You can feel the old man’s pain as his quest seems to elude him, and the love he engenders in Kim, his disciple. And you will be carried away by the transcendent ending.

9. City of Djinns by William Dalrymple. I was torn, not sure which Dalrymple book to put on this list. They are all good, especially Nine Lives. He is a solid as a rock in terms of research, reporting and writing. But this is his first book about India and it’s about Delhi (Dilli), my home-away-from home in India — and in fact, his real home. He lives there now. He has an Indian soul. The book is both a personal narrative about living in India for a year and about the history of Delhi. (And if there’s one thing Delhi has, aside from crowds of people and traffic, it’s history.) It’s by turns informative and funny. I keep intending to find out if International Backside taxi stand really exists. P.S. Dalrymple is the found of the Jaipur Literature Festival.

10. Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. On the stroke of midnight, August 15, 1947, India became free. This is the classic book about the biggest event in modern Indian history: the freedom struggle, partition and birth of a nation. You cannot begin to know or understand modern India if you don’t have a grip on its struggle for independence and the larger-than-life players who made it happen, especially Gandhi, Nehru, Mountbatten and Jinnah. The film Gandhi, directed by Richard Attenborough, gives you a lot of the same information, but this book fills in all the holes.

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Top 5 ways my India travels differ from Eat, Pray, Love

Mariellen — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 02:31:24 +0000

Me, Liz and the subcontinent

I traveled in India and studied yoga, but there the Eat, Pray, Love similarities end

Because I travel in India and write about it, many people ask me if I was influenced by the book Eat, Pray, Love, and they try and compare me to author Elizabeth Gilbert. Here are the five key differences between my story and Gilbert’s.

1. I did not have a hefty book advance to subsidize my trip. My trip to India was not research for a book, and I had to subsidize it myself out of my meager resources. I sold 1/3 of my possessions, gave up my apartment, moved into a small room and scrimped and saved for a year. After I returned, and realized how much I’d changed, I went through a lot of financial instability. The whole experience was a “real spiritual quest,” in the sense that I threw myself into it without any attachment to outcome. A big part of my journey was about throwing myself off the cliff to find out IF a net would appear. Read on for the other four.

2. I did not go to India because of EPL. I was already in India when the book was published so it didn’t influence me. For the record, seekers and travelers have been going to India for many generations. Steve Jobs went to India. The Beatles went to India. Mark Twain went to India. There’s even some evidence that Jesus went to India.

I went to India originally, in 2005, because of two reasons, carrot and stick. The carrot was that I always wanted to go; that virtually since childhood I have been drawn to the “mysterious east” — I painted Maharaja Palaces on my walls, practised Indian dancing, mooned over photos of The Beatles in Rishikesh (especially George) with marigolds around their necks, went out for Hallowe’en in flowing harem pants and a sequined top, etc.

The stick was that over the course of a few short years, I experienced a series of losses — both my parents died and my fiance and I broke up — and I fell into a lengthy and profound depression. I needed to do something to shake up my life, and at the age of 45, decided to go to India for six months to travel, volunteer and study yoga.

3. Gilbert went to three countries; I only went to India. My version could be called Pray, Pray, Pray because I only went to India; I didn’t go anywhere else. And my spiritual journey was a big part of my trip.

Part of the reason I went to India, and one of the things that drew me there, was yoga. But I have to say, I learned as much about yoga just by traveling in India as I did by studying at an ashram. In order to deal with the crowds, chaos, delays, I learned how to:

go with the flow,
find inner stillness,
trust in the universe.

In other words, I learned many of the teachings of yoga.

4. This is not a love story. EPL ends with Gilbert meeting the love of her life, Philipe. I actually did meet a man in India, and became part of his big, fat Indian family, but that wasn’t the point, it wasn’t the ultimate gift of that trip.

I gained so much from that trip, and my subsequent four more trips to India, that I could write a book about it (hey, I did!), but here is the top 3:

I gained a completely new awareness of the world and my place in it. Traveling in India was really the first time I have ever left my “middle class bubble” and stepped out of my comfort zone. It gave me a completely new perspective on life and on myself as a global citizen.
I gained a new career. I started travel blogging and now I publish Breathedreamgo, write travel stories for magazines and newspapers, and I published a book, Song of India.
I gained a new spiritual awareness that includes recognizing the power each of us has to manifest our dreams and remake our reality. We have more control over our minds than we think we do, and less over the circumstances of our life. So the other big spiritual awareness for me was around realizing that I am part of a much bigger consciousness, that we’re all connected, and that everything turns out the way it’s supposed to.

5. Going, going, gone. Gilbert came back from Italy, India and Bali, married her man, and wrote a book about commitment. I never really came back from India. I’ve traveled to India on four lengthy trips since my first trip, and have a career that is largely based around writing about India. Part of my journey has been to open up to another culture in a very profound way, and it has given me so much in terms of meaningful adventure. In fact, in India I discovered my soul culture, and parts of myself that I never knew existed.

Moi on the morning of the Kumbh Mela 2010 in Haridwar

My top travel tip

If you really want to travel, and be a traveler, not a tourist, consider going alone; or if not alone, then make every effort to open yourself up to the experience and let it affect you, let it change you. Let it shatter your biases. Let it provoke your compassion. Let it change you. I call this respectful travel — and it really means not only respecting the culture you are traveling in, but also respecting yourself too.

NOTE: This speech was given at the Toronto MeetPlanGo event on October 18, 2011.

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More favourite books about India or travel

Mariellen — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:08:14 +0000

Spiritual seekers, heroes and India lovers

I am way behind in writing reviews about the books I am reading. Ever since I got rid of my TV, I’ve been reading like a fiend — and I am expanding my lists to include books about transformational travel. For my previous lists, please read Another 10 books on India or 10 (more) books I love about India or Top 10 books on India thus far.

(NOTE: Do not look for Shantaram, The White Tiger or Eat, Pray, Love. You will not find them; I don’t think they rate. But you will see a comparison to Shantaram, number 9 below.)

The mass popularity of Eat, Pray, Love seems to suggest that author Elizabeth Gilbert was the first seeker ever to brave the rigours of travel in India in order to discover inner bliss at a spiritual retreat. To set the record straight, spiritual seekers have been going to India for many generations, perhaps many centuries. The Beatles went to India in 1968. A Search in Secret India (on the list below) by Dr. Paul Brunton was published in 1935. Somerset Maugham’s masterpiece A Razor’s Edge is about a man who goes to India just after WW1. Mark Twain went to India in the 19th century. There is even speculation that Jesus trained as a yogi in India – and that’s where he learned to perform “miracles.”

Sri Ramana Maharishi

1. A Search in Secret India by Dr. Paul Brunton

This is a fascinating book that starts slowly and becomes very compelling. Brunton was way ahead of his time — this book was published in 1935 and it’s about his search for a spiritual master in India. He admits to being skeptical; admits to getting duped by fakes; and almost dies in a Bombay hotel room. But something pushes him forward and after about a year of searching, traveling and living in very (and I mean very) rough conditons, he meets Sri Ramana Maharishi. That is when the book becomes transcendent, and impossible to put down. The last part of the book, about Sri Ramana Maharishi, is just about the best writing I have ever read by a spiritual seeker. It’s truly riveting.

2. Nine Lives by William Dalrymple

A masterpiece. I was already a big Dalrymple fan — his wonderful book City of Djinns, about Delhi, is on one of my previous lists — but this book escalates him to a new level as far as I am concerned. The book profiles nine different people Dalrymple has met on his extensive travels in India. All of the unique characters in the book are involved in some arcane spiritual practise and the enormous research Dalrymple did to flesh out the stories and give the reader background and context makes for fascinating and informative reading.

3. All Roads Lead to Ganga by Ruskin Bond

This is a lovely piece of writing, an elegiac about Ruskin’s home in the Himalayan foothills of Uttrakhand. It reads like a love letter to the countryside and especially the nature of Dehra Dun, Mussoorie and the Char Dham pilgrimage routes to the source of the Ganges River which naturalist Ruskin has hiked many times. I read it on a long train ride to Dehra Dun, in fact, and it was the perfect accompaniment.

Author Bruce Chatwin

4. The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin

I love this book. I just finished reading it again after many years. It is unusual, audacious, inspired, brilliant, poetic and magical. Wish I had met Chatwin — I think he must have been all of these things, too. If you haven’t read it, just a get a copy and read it. Ostensibly it’s about the songlines of the Aboriginal people in Australia; but then it descends into a much deeper, broader subject — man’s inherent need to roam.

In fact, I like this book so much that I added Rohetgarh — the Rajasthani haveli-hotel that he stayed in while he wrote it — to my Dream in India tour. This tour will take you to inspirational and literary places in India including the Jaipur Literarature Festival.

4. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

This book was a huge best-seller and it is one of those rare books that actually deserves to be. It is an extremely inspiring story about a man who stumbles into a village in the remotest corner of Pakistan and promises to build them a school. He ends up building hundreds of schools in Pakistan. The other reason it’s such a great book is because of the writing by David Oliver Relin — who traveled with Mortensen in Pakistan for a year.

6. Carpet Sahib by Martin Booth

Carpet Sahib was the mispronunciation of Jim Corbett’s name by the local people of Nainital, in the Kumaon region of India, where he was born and lived most of his life. Jim Corbett was completely at home in the jungles of India and became famous — legendary, actually — for tracking and killing several man-eating tigers and leopards. He later became a very successful writer and one of the first modern conservationists. He hung up his gun and picked up a camera and shot some of the first moving pictures of tigers in the wild. Corbett Tiger Reserve is of course named after him.

7. The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag by Jim Corbett

Not as well known as The Man-Eaters of Kumaon, this book is nevertheless a good read. It made me feel like a boy scout at camp, reading by flashlight — it’s that kind of book. Corbett won’t win any awards for poetic writing, but he sure can tell a good story. The descriptions of the killings can be gruesome. I read it in bed with my tabby cat stretched out across my legs and there were a few times I found myself looking at her a little more intently than usual.

8. Baumgartner’s Bombay by Anita Desai

This is a deceptively hardcore piece of writing from a masterful writer and storyteller. It’s about the last, pathos-filled days of a “man without family or home,” a lonely, aging foreigner in Bombay who has no where else to go. The final scenes, after he meets an unwashed hippie in a local cafe, are searingly hard to read. This book is to Shantaram what Masterpiece Theatre is to an Adam Sandler film.

Jasmine D'Costa and her Mother in Mumbai

9. Curry is Thick than Water by Jasmine D’Costa

Jasmine D’Costa is an Indo-Canadian writer, originally from Mumbai. The stories in this collection are extremely well told, very entertaining and very well-written. I will never get the image of the elephant lying down on the highway in Bombay out of my head, and nor would I want to.

10. An Indian Summer by Jamers Cameron

No, not THAT James Cameron. (Although, oddly, the film director will be at an ideas conference in India in December 2010, the INK Conference.) This James Cameron was a newspaper man in India during the twilight of the British Raj. In 1972, he returned to India, newly married to an Indian woman. The book is about his return journey. It’s thoughtful, really well written and underneath his vigorous journalistic style lurks a palpable love of India. In the book, he wrote that he produced a television program with an English director with the goal of scrupulously avoiding “the picturesque… and out worn visual beauties … that had suffocated every film about India since the medium was invented.” But the plan fell through “as soon as the camera turned; it was difficult indeed to film anything in India without some element of the strange and beautiful intruding.”

I really like this book for many reasons, not the least of which is this sentence — about the rotting piles of papers piled high in the offices of Calcutta’s bureaucrats: “Their protruding edges stirred under the fans with a gentle bony crepitation.”

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In defense of the spiritual quest

Mariellen — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:47:43 +0000

Sadhu at the gates of the "Beatles ashram" in Rishikesh, India

Don’t throw the sadhu (holy man) out with the holy water

NOTE: This letter to the editor was published in the Globe and Mail newspaper this morning, August 16, 2010.

In Canada’s national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, celebrity columnist Johanna Schneller says about Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love: “Gilbert’s story distills for me my problem with spiritual quests. Is trying to be a better person just a really great excuse to think about yourself all day long?” Only in the world of Eat, Pray Love – which does not describe a spiritual quest at all.

Gilbert traveled to Italy, India and Bali on a large book advance – which means essentially that she was doing research – and she doesn’t change, she doesn’t transform, she just falls in love again. The book/movie have none of the hallmarks of a true spiritual quest.

Many people are cynical about the Eat, Pray, Love juggernaut, and I don’t blame them. I heard the cash register ch-chinging as I read it. But I hope the popularity of this highly commercial memoir will not cause people to be cynical also about spiritual quests. I hope people will not throw the sadhu out with the holy water.

An unexamined life is not worth living

Spiritual quests have a long and honourable history. The dictum “Know Thyself” was carved over the entrance to the Delphi Oracle in Ancient Greece. Buddha left his life as a prince to find a solution to human suffering. Jesus went on a spiritual quest – and some say to India where he studied with yogis and learned to perform “miracles.” Aboriginal people the world over have traditions of vision quests and walkabouts. Muslims are enjoined to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. And in India there is a rich and ancient tradition of spiritual questing that takes on many hues.

A true spiritual quest is not about discovering oneself in the egotistic sense – I’m vegetarian, I prefer to live in the country, I would never use Botox – it’s about discovering oneself in the spiritual sense. This means discovering the divine within you; transcending your ego and the materialism of the everyday world and seeing your place in the cosmos; increasing your consciousness and becoming more aware of others, the environment, the sacred and the impact of your thoughts, words and actions, among other worthy pursuits.

Far from being a frivolous distraction, a spiritual quest represents the opportunity to discover an alternative view; a way to live a more meaningful life; a means for recovering from loss, trauma and addiction; and a chance to open to the divine. It is almost a necessity in today’s world of rampant consumerism and materialism.

The massive popularity of Eat, Pray, Love proves there is a tremendous need among people to live a more spiritual, meaningful life. It is a baby step in the right direction.

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Film review of Eat, Pray, Love

Mariellen — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 03:48:07 +0000

On location in India in Columbia Pictures' EAT PRAY LOVE. © 2010 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Eat, Pray, Love is a Julia Roberts movie. Her elegantly chiseled features, distinctive curled upper lip and large, limpid brown eyes dominate the movie. It’s a travelogue all right – a travelogue of Julia’s face and her familiar, and limited, emotional range.

First, the positive

There are two things I like about Eat, Pray, Love. One, the male cast members. The filmmakers very wisely decided to surround the leading lady with excellent actors. James Franco, Billy Crudup and Javier Bardem are all excellent as the men in her life. The love story in Bali with Bardem is the best part of the movie. If they had simply made it a love story, set in the lush tropics of Bali, it would have been much more satisfying.

The star of the show is Richard Jenkins, who was also excellent in The Visitor. It’s worth the price of admission to see his scene on the roof of the ashram, when he tells Julia/Liz about losing his family. It’s the emotional centre of the film, and the raw honesty of that scene makes the rest of it look like an episode of The Love Boat.

The other think I like is, of course, the travel photography—the scenes of Italy and Bali are lovely. But how they could make sun-filled India look like Transylvania on a bad day is beyond me. And for the record, I stay in a lovely, clean ashram, full of white, airy buildings on acres of gorgeous gardens dripping with huge tropical flowers. It is a veritable garden-of-eden (to see pictures, read my post Auorvalley Ashram: A haven of peace and conscious living). I understand they chose this ashram in the movie because it’s close to the airport. They make it look like the airport hotel of ashrams. Oh, what a wasted opportunity to show how splendid and beautiful an ashram can be!

Missed opportunities

I have three main problems with the Eat, Pray, Love movie:

I don’t know what it is about,
it’s awash in wasted opportunities,
it makes India look dark and gloomy.

I have spent hours thinking about this movie, trying to figure out what it is about, I really have. And therein lies the problem – should a movie that purportedly celebrates the joy of traveling, eating, praying and loving in exotic destinations be so difficult to grasp?

Maybe there is nothing to grasp. Maybe that’s the problem. The main character – Eat, Pray, Love book author Elizabeth Gilbert, played by Julia Roberts – is not interesting and her situation is just not compelling. She’s young, beautiful and successful and keeps falling in love with hunky men, who fall madly in love with her, too. It’s really hard to feel sorry for her; it’s really hard to understand her angst. And the problem is compounded by the charismatic Ms. Roberts’ limited acting abilities.

EPL: Elephant Pushes Lady

This is movie that desperately needs a metaphor. Here’s one for you – and it is from one of my favourite scenes in the film. Julia/Liz is sitting outdoors at the ashram in India when a painted elephant starts walking towards her. She has been warned that a rogue elephant is on the loose, so she is naturally apprehensive. (By the way, this actually happened last spring when I was at my ashram in north India – though I never saw the elephant).

She gets up and touches the elephant and the elephant playfully responds, with no sign of aggression. The scene ends. It’s a lovely moment and the filmmakers do nothing with it. Julia/Liz doesn’t seem to learn anything from it; there is no epiphany; it doesn’t move the plot forward; nothing. That’s what this movie is like. Pushing an elephant. And missed opportunities.

There are so many missed opportunities in this movie! It’s heartbreaking. Kind of like visiting Shimla and seeing all the shabby cafes lining the ridge, in the way of the view of the Himalayas, rather than taking advantage of it.

Here’s another potential metaphor. Again at the ashram, our heroine gives up her SILENT badge to become a group hostess, kind of like Julie on The Love Boat. (Why does this movie keep making me think of The Love Boat?!?) She misses her opportunity to actually experience India, spiritual awareness and the chance to begin to transcend her ego.

So my top two problems are related – and ironic given that this story is supposedly about a woman who goes in search of herself to an ashram in India. From a yoga perspective, the Julia/Liz character confuses her ego with her Self. Her angst stems from her egotism and her inability to commit to anything larger than herself. And her character – and therefore the movie – is severely limited by this egotistic perspective. She doesn’t transcend her ego, she doesn’t have a spiritual epiphany, she doesn’t open herself to god – she just falls in love again. What’s in it for me, the viewer?

But I’m still puzzling about what this movie is about. I think it’s about how Julia/Liz had to travel to Bali to finally commit to a man. Maybe the scriptwriters got Eat, Pray, Love and author Elizabeth Gilbert’s following book, Committed, mixed up when they were writing.

Okay, I’ve done way too much hair pulling and teeth-knashing over this movie. I’m going to meditate.

My word for this movie is boring.

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Toronto winners of Eat, Pray, Love contest pick up their loot!

Mariellen — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:27:17 +0000

the winner's loot

And the winners are…

The winners of the Eat, Pray, Love contest gathered at the Chapters-Indigo book store in downtown Toronto on Wednesday, August 11 to pick up their free passes to a preview screening of the film and a whole lot more. Thanks to Natalie, Grant and Kyra at Sony Pictures Canada for giving one double pass, a “pray” t-shirt, bookmark and mala bead bracelet to each winner; and to Chapters-Indigo for giving each winner a copy of the book by Elizabeth Gilbert. Chapters-Indigo was also very cordial about hosting us — thanks go to Michael and Phil and the really friendly people at this store. If you want to shop in a bookstore run by friendly people, go to the Chapters-Indigo at John and Richmond streets in downtown Toronto.

To see the winners’ photos, read more.

Gizelle and Mariellen

Stephanie

Natalie

Alexandra and Waheed

Sundeep

Michele of A Taste for Travel

Thank you for reading. Please visit BreatheDreamGo or stop by my Facebook page at Breathedreamgo.

Eat, Pray, Love contest winners

Mariellen — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 01:45:56 +0000

On location in India in Columbia Pictures' EAT PRAY LOVE. © 2010 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This summer let yourself go

Thanks to everyone who entered BreatheDreamGo’s Eat, Pray, Love contest. These lucky people, listed below, won a double pass to the preview screenings of the Julia Roberts film Eat, Pray, Love based on the popular best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert.

This entry, by Traci Walters, gets honourable mention for being my favourite.

“I would love to travel to Haridwar to witness and experience the city’s vibrant colours, diverse foods, lights, people and spirituality. The absence of alcohol in the city must allow for pure interaction with the people and its culture. I can only dream of its magnificent temples and steps leading down to the great Ganges River. The sunset at the river must leave an imprint in ones’ mind forever. The little candles representing offerings floating down the river reminding us of the gifts from the universe must be a sight to behold. Seeing the Pilgrims bathing in the river that meets the great Himalayas must be a truly remarkable and unforgettable experience. I would love to be in the river with the Pilgrims at sunset to feel a sense of renewal and healing for the next half of my life.”

And the winners are…

Daniella V., Vancouver

Tomas H., Vancouver

Lori H., Vancouver

Julie O., Vancouver

Andrea E., Edmonton

Haley L., Calgary

Jillian W., Calgary

Sarah F. Calgary

Amy L., Calgary

Barbara B., Winnipeg

Heidi P., Winnipeg

Lauran M., Montreal

Sue B.,, Ottawa

Alison C., Ottawa

Traci W., Ontario

Janice S., Ottawa

Alicia T., Toronto

Christine L., Toronto

Waheed R., Toronto

Mike K., Toronto

Rita L. Toronto

Michele P., Toronto

Jassie S., Toronto

Natalie T., Toronto

Anita, Toronto

Stephanie, Toronto

Thank you for reading. Please visit BreatheDreamGo or stop by my Facebook page at Breathedreamgo.

Win free passes to Eat, Pray, Love preview screenings in Canada

Mariellen — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 04:20:41 +0000

Win free passes to see Eat, Pray, Love

NOTE: CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED AS OF AUGUST 9, 2010

This Video Friday, BreatheDreamGo is featuring the trailer to the movie Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts and 70 free passes to give away to the August 11 preview screenings in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa and Winnipeg. And 10 lucky winners in Toronto will also receive a prize pack along with their passes comprised of a “pray” t-shirt, mala bead bracelet and bookmark.

To enter the contest, click Read the rest of this entry and follow the instructions.

To win a pass for two people to see the preview screening of Eat, Pray, Love in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa and Winnipeg, follow these instructions and get your answers in before August 7, 2010. Toronto deadline is August 9, 2010.

1. Subscribe to this blog, BreatheDreamGo, by entering your email address into the SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL box in the right hand sidebar.

2. Follow BreatheDreamGo on Twitter

3. Join BreatheDreamGo Facebook page

4. In either 140 characters or 140 words (maximum) answer the question: Where would you like to go in India and why? Submit your answer to the comments section below. IMPORTANT: let me know which Canadian city you are in!

Winners in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa and Winnipeg will be chosen August 7 and your pass mailed to you. Winners in Toronto will be chosen August 9 and can pick up their tickets and prize packs at Scotiabank Theatre, 259 Richmond Street West, Toronto on August 11 at 6:30 pm.

Thank you to Sony Pictures Canada for providing the passes and prize packs.

Thank you for reading. Please visit BreatheDreamGo or stop by my Facebook page at Breathedreamgo.

Eat, Pray, Love and India and the quest

Mariellen — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:47:19 +0000

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

The biggest question of our time is not do you believe in god; or is global warming real; it’s where do stand on Eat, Pray, Love? The book about Elizabeth Gilbert’s quest to find “everything” in Italy, India and Bali is a publishing phenomenon: it was an international bestseller with more than seven million copies sold worldwide; and in 2008, Time Magazine named Gilbert one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Today, July 18, is Elizabeth Gilbert’s birthday. She is 41. And I want to salute her.

I can’t honestly say that I LOVED the book — there are better books about westerners in India (see my post Another top 10 Books about India) and I question whether Gilbert was on a “real” spiritual quest as she had a book advance, which means it could be argued that she was doing research — but I appreciate it. For one thing, it unearthed an enormous audience for the kind of writing I do: personal narrative / spiritual quest / travelogue. For another, it’s immensely popular AND about going to an ashram in India, which is almost an oxymoron (though that is changing).

And I defend Gilbert and the people who charge her with “self-absorbed narcissism” on the grounds that she did what she needed to do to recover from her divorce, heal herself and become productive and creative. Through her journey of self-recovery and self-discovery, and her ability to share it through her writing, she has inspired thousands, perhaps millions, of people.

In my books, that is not something to sneeze at.

Swami Brahmdev, Aurovalley Ashram, India

The idea of a soul quest or journey of self-discovery is not new. “Know thyself” was written above the entrance to the Delphi Oracle in ancient Greece. It has a long history and is highly respected. My teacher in India, Swami Brahmdev of Aurovalley Ashram, says the purpose of life is to know ourselves; to experience life, to learn, to change and to grow. There are many intelligent, respectable, highly spiritual, non-narcissistic people who think discovering ourselves is what we were put on earth to do!

So not only am I NOT against personal journeys of self-discovery … I, too, went on a personal journey to recover from loss. I wrote about it on my post, What it means to breathe, dream, go. Over the span of a few short years I lost both my parents (my Mother died suddenly and unexpectedly of heart failure and I found her body; my Father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and I held his hand while he died); my fiancé left me (with an expensive wedding dress hanging in the closet); my sister married and moved out of town; we lost our family cottage; and I broke my elbow, which seriously affected my yoga practise.

It felt like a river of loss was sweeping through my life and by the end of it, I was exhausted from hanging onto the bank. I threw my faith into yoga to recover from depression and during yoga teacher training decided to go to India for six months. It felt like I was letting go; it felt counter-intuitive; and I was scared. But I felt compelled. I felt I HAD to go to India to save my life.

Me, at Aurovalley Ashram, India, 2010

In my case, I didn’t have a book advance and I went only to India (and oddly I was there the same year as Gilbert). It was a spiritual quest in the sense that I had no idea what would happen – even if I would live through it!

In fact, I fell in love with India and I fell in love with Ajay (my partner) and his wonderful family; and now I make part of my living sharing my love for India through my writing.

Going to India not only saved my life – it gave me a whole new life, a new man, a new family and a new home. I now consider India my second home.

So I “get” Elizabeth Gilbert. And I am encouraged by people who find success in the creative and/or spiritual fields. Happy birthday Elizabeth!

NOTE: If you feel inspired to go on your own journney of discovery, you should check out MeetPlanGo — a free event taking place in several cities in the USA and Canada to inspire people to fulfill their career break and long-term travel dreams.

P.S. Here is Elizabeth Gilbert giving a very inspiring TED talk about creativity and being an artist.

P.S.

Thank you for reading. Please visit BreatheDreamGo or stop by my Facebook page at Breathedreamgo.

BreatheDreamGo » Eat Pray Love

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Sri Ramana Maharishi

1. A Search in Secret India by Dr. Paul Brunton

2. Nine Lives by William Dalrymple

3. All Roads Lead to Ganga by Ruskin Bond

Author Bruce Chatwin

4. The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin

4. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

6. Carpet Sahib by Martin Booth

7. The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag by Jim Corbett

8. Baumgartner’s Bombay by Anita Desai

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10. An Indian Summer by Jamers Cameron

In defense of the spiritual quest

Don’t throw the sadhu (holy man) out with the holy water

NOTE: This letter to the editor was published in the Globe and Mail newspaper this morning, August 16, 2010.

An unexamined life is not worth living

Film review of Eat, Pray, Love

On location in India in Columbia Pictures' EAT PRAY LOVE. © 2010 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Eat, Pray, Love is a Julia Roberts movie. Her elegantly chiseled features, distinctive curled upper lip and large, limpid brown eyes dominate the movie. It’s a travelogue all right – a travelogue of Julia’s face and her familiar, and limited, emotional range.

First, the positive

Missed opportunities

EPL: Elephant Pushes Lady

Toronto winners of Eat, Pray, Love contest pick up their loot!

And the winners are…

To see the winners’ photos, read more.

Eat, Pray, Love contest winners

On location in India in Columbia Pictures' EAT PRAY LOVE. © 2010 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This summer let yourself go

Thanks to everyone who entered BreatheDreamGo’s Eat, Pray, Love contest. These lucky people, listed below, won a double pass to the preview screenings of the Julia Roberts film Eat, Pray, Love based on the popular best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert.

And the winners are…

Daniella V., Vancouver

Tomas H., Vancouver

Lori H., Vancouver

Julie O., Vancouver

Andrea E., Edmonton

Haley L., Calgary

Jillian W., Calgary

Sarah F. Calgary

Amy L., Calgary

Barbara B., Winnipeg

Heidi P., Winnipeg

Lauran M., Montreal

Sue B.,, Ottawa

Alison C., Ottawa

Traci W., Ontario

Janice S., Ottawa

Alicia T., Toronto

Christine L., Toronto

Waheed R., Toronto

Mike K., Toronto

Rita L. Toronto

Michele P., Toronto

Jassie S., Toronto

Natalie T., Toronto

Anita, Toronto

Stephanie, Toronto

Win free passes to Eat, Pray, Love preview screenings in Canada

Win free passes to see Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love and India and the quest

Jasmine D'Costa and her Mother in Mumbai

9. Curry is Thick than Water by Jasmine D’Costa

On location in India in Columbia Pictures' EAT PRAY LOVE. © 2010 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This summer let yourself go