Welcome to India: A Westerner's Spiritual Journey - Tapa dura

Many fantasize about leaving the materialistic west to search for life's meaning in spiritual India. Few, however, actually walk away from a productive career, dispose of all belongings except what fills thirteen boxes, and set out on such a quest. Alone, carrying two outdated guidebooks, this renaissance woman--a practitioner of yoga, gigong and meditation whose prior work included being a lawyer, banker, political consultant, realtor, teacher, and saleswoman--left America. With no plans aside from following an inner guidance, her compass was a deep-seated belief in the oneness of humanity and connection to the divine. A journey that is occasionally heartrending, sometimes challenging, often hysterical, and always poignant, readers will be mesmerized by this ""spoiled westerner's"" transformative adventures. From box-stealing cows to powerful chanting to child abuse to near collapse from heat exhaustion and livestock stench, these plainspoken journals transport you, as if walking beside her, to ashrams, streets, temples, trains, and marketplaces of South India. Whether avoiding critters in ashrams, maneuvering the country's unique toilets, or dealing with language challenges, she becomes entranced by the paradoxical cacophony and magical joys, and most significantly, by the overwhelming kindness and generosity of the Indian people.