Writings

Thoughts, Speeches, Anecdotes



Six months into our marriage, Guri (my wife) and I left home to journey India by foot. Living on dollar a day, eating wherever food is offered, sleeping wherever a flat surface is found, ours was an unscripted spiritual pilgrimage to greet life in the farthest corners of our own consciousness. As we walked, we learned much about India, a lot about humanity and most about the stranger we call "I". [FAQ (2005), Overview of Lessons (2012)]

Below are entries in chronological order of our year in India. Some of the early ones are of our experiments in service prior to starting the walk on March 31, while some of the later ones are at a meditation retreat following our walk. [Manisha has also put together a PDF document with all the entries below.]

Before The Walk

Jan 29 '05Fourth Floor Rain-bow
Jan 31 '05Walls Must Come Down
Feb 01 '05Kachi Kapshida
Feb 01 '05Doors Keep Opening
Feb 02 '05President of Singapore
Feb 02 '05Going With The Flow
Feb 02 '05Just Do It
Feb 04 '05Prove Your Identity
Feb 04 '05Service to Humanity
Feb 05 '05A Dip Into Sikhism (**popular)
Feb 06 '05Sat-Sri-Akal (**)
Feb 07 '05Strangers of Jaipur
Feb 08 '05Driving A Saint
Feb 09 '05God's Mathematics (**)
Feb 10 '05Fragrance of Love
Feb 11 '05One Rupee In Change
Feb 13 '05Gap Between Us and Vivekananda
Feb 14 '05Two Ladies For Two Minutes (**)
Feb 15 '05What are your plans in India?
Feb 17 '05Praying Lips, Helping Hands
Feb 19 '05Vegetable Seller At Gandhi Ashram (**)
Feb 20 '05Work is Contractual; Effort is Personal
Feb 21 '05Dancing Like No One Is Watching (**)
Feb 22 '05From Sweeper To Saint
Feb 23 '05Washing Clothes Samadhi
Feb 24 '05Pilgrimage To Full Moon (**)
Feb 25 '05Heartless Intellectuals
Feb 26 '05Lion and the Goat
Mar 01 '05Be Seated!
Mar 02 '05Global Pay-It-Forward?
Mar 03 '05Nut Found. Bolt Missing.
Mar 04 '05Grapes From The Heart
Mar 05 '05A Tireless Stream
Mar 07 '05Ten Minutes at Ten PM (**)
Mar 08 '05Just Another Day in Paradise
Mar 09 '05Random Act of Prayer
Mar 10 '05When Dirty, Shower.
Mar 11 '05Clockwise India
Mar 12 '05Ghostbusters!
Mar 13 '05Just One Sentence

Pilot Project

Mar 13 '05Searching For the Good
Mar 14 '05Onwards to Kabirwad
Mar 15 '05Sweet Sugar Cane Juice (**)
Mar 16 '05Conversations With God
Mar 16 '05Garland of Awareness
Mar 17 '05Give Me All Your Money! (**)
Mar 19 '05Temple Without an Idol
Mar 19 '05Begging A Beggar
Mar 23 '05The Village Life
Mar 24 '05Paraspar Devo Bhava
Mar 25 '05Seven Barefoot Saints
Mar 26 '0512 Hour Chant (**)
Mar 29 '05Blindfolded Love
Mar 30 '05Another Bold Experiment
Mar 30 '05Let's Get on With the Show

Walking Pilgrimage Starts

Mar 31 '05Known to the Unknown, Day 1 (**)
Apr 01 '05Two Potters of Bareja
Apr 01 '05Profile: Govardhan "Ironman" Patel
Apr 03 '05Visnu in Vasna (**)
Apr 04 '05Profile: Prahlad Dada
Apr 05 '05A Melodic Blessing
Apr 06 '05Quenching Our Thirst
Apr 06 '05Churn and Burn (**)
Apr 07 '05Haircut on the House
Apr 09 '05The Path Under My Feet (**)
Apr 18 '05Running into Nadiad's Pope
Apr 18 '05500 Rupees From a Monk!
Apr 18 '05A Fellow Pilgrim With a Bidi
Apr 18 '05Temple on the Highway
Apr 19 '05In Search of the Good ...
Apr 20 '05Booking Window
Apr 20 '0524 Hours in Gotri (**)
Apr 21 '05Courage Under Fire
Apr 22 '05April Clouds
Apr 25 '05Soul Food (**)
Apr 26 '05Between Guri and God (**)
Apr 29 '05Sunday Special
Apr 29 '05First Class Karma (**)
Apr 30 '05A Nine-Year-Old's Gita
May 01 '05A Hundred Rupee Note (**)
May 05 '05Smallest Big Story of Goraj (**)
May 06 '05Bells of an Ice-cream Cart (**)
May 11 '05Two New Profiles
May 11 '05Birds Leave No Traces
May 12 '05Q&A with Rajeshree Muni
May 12 '05Arriving as Pilgrims, Not Guests (**)
May 13 '05Blogging Blessings
May 16 '05Lifting Loads, Pushing Cars (**)
May 19 '05700 Kilometers of Lessons (**)
May 20 '05H-two-O, H-two-O
May 20 '05Putting It All On the Line
May 21 '05My Crazy Jewish Brother
May 22 '05No, Not My Water Bottle!
May 22 '05Stares and Smiles
May 24 '052005: State of Gandhi's Khadi (**)
Jun 02 '05Full Moon Fast
Jun 02 '05Guava Uncle of Kantidara (**)
Jun 04 '05Carrying Your Own Thorns
Jun 04 '05Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid? (**)
Jun 05 '05My First Bow (**)
Jun 07 '05No Doors, No Locks
Jun 09 '05Four Motorcyles on Wilson Hill
Jun 11 '05Thousand Kilometers, One Conclusion (**)
Jun 22 '05Q&A With Kanti Shah
Jun 22 '05Monsoon Meditation
Jun 23 '05Ripening of a Mango
Jun 25 '05India's Favorite Spiritual Excuse (**)
Jun 27 '05An 80 Year Old Hand (**)
Jun 28 '05Finding Nipun
Jun 30 '05My Nominee For Nobel Peace Prize (**)

At the Monastery

Jul 01 '05Crossing Milestones
Jul 03 '05An Inevitable Coin Toss (**)
Jul 05 '05Two Thoreaus of Sakwa County (**)
Jul 16 '05More Stories Coming Soon
Jul 21 '05Latest Communication Technology
Jul 22 '05Belated Wedding Offering
Jul 23 '05Attention, Please (**)
Jul 24 '05"Form" Checking Adventures (**)
Jul 25 '05Running Into Myself
Jul 26 '05Thinking of 'Guri' (**)
Jul 28 '05Rescued By a Coin Toss
Jul 28 '05The 4AM Lemonade
Jul 29 '05Best Compliment Ever?
Jul 30 '05Rat Race II: The Karma Edition (**)
Aug 02 '05Unstuffing An Envelope (**)
Nov 07 '04Temple of Accumulated Error
Aug 02 '05Most Inspiring Blog Entries?
Aug 14 '05An Invisible Pilgrim
Aug 16 '05Inspiring Billboards
Aug 16 '05Sweet Samadhi
Aug 16 '05iJourney, We All Journey
Aug 16 '05My Design Principles (**)
Aug 23 '05Pain is All in the Mind? (**)
Aug 25 '05The Blind and The Kind
Aug 29 '05A Whisper At My Doorstep (**)
Sep 03 '05Day 0, To Be Like a Coconut (**)
Sep 07 '05Day 1: Speech and Silence (**)
Sep 09 '05Day 2: Dharma Works
Sep 12 '05Day 4: From Power To Force (**)
Sep 20 '05Dirty Pond, Beautiful Lotus (**)

Post Pilgrimage

Sep 26 '05Baroda's Smiley Street (**)
Sep 28 '05India Today: Sex, Drugs, and Sports?
Sep 30 '05So, What Did You Learn? (**)
Oct 06 '0550 Items That Should Change the World
Oct 07 '05Simple Truths
Oct 08 '05Servant Leadership
Oct 10 '05Shop Till You Drop
Oct 18 '05400 Rupee Tip At the Seva Cafe (**)
Oct 21 '05Unspoken Contract With a Rickshaw Driver (**)
Oct 27 '05A Tribute to a Teacher (**)
Nov 03 '05A Brilliant Journey
Nov 08 '05Is She a Pilgrim?
Nov 08 '05In Search of Sinh-Baba
Nov 08 '05Nadiad Spices, The Mom-and-Pop Way
Nov 30 '05Three Steps, One Bow in Gujarat (**)
Dec 01 '05Congratulations, Viral and Pavi!
Dec 06 '05Lessons From Indian Traffic
Dec 06 '05Your Son Has No Fear
Dec 08 '05One Rupee Ethics
Dec 08 '05An Encounter with Sri Lanka's Gandhi
Dec 13 '05Secret Service: A Compassion Gang (**)
Dec 20 '05A Full Moon View
Dec 20 '05Back to the Bayarea
 
 

Projects I'm Involved With

"Service doesn't start when you have something to give; it blossoms naturally when you have nothing left to take."

"Real privilege lies in knowing that you have enough."