This is a different sort of podcast – for multiple reasons. Firstly, it features some interviews I did half my life ago. Secondly, it’s still a work in progress. I intended to make a radio documentary, but the audio wound up on MiniDiscs gathering dust.
To cut a long story short, in 2001 I was a foreign correspondent. But this wasn’t a work trip. I was searching for answers to all sorts of questions I couldn’t articulate. I hoped I might find some in India at the world’s biggest gathering – the Mahā Kumbha Melā, where the Ganges meets the Yamuna. I talked to a wide range of people, asking Westerners what had inspired their journeys Eastward.
Looking back a generation later, I’ve made one myself – from drug-fuelled confusion to writing a book about yoga philosophy, and a career as a teacher. My younger self had other ideas – he tried to emulate the Melā by staging a festival on Big War Island in Belgrade. However, listening to these chats, I can hear a few echoes of what was to come – plus repeated indications of much still to learn…
