– Index –

Enhancing Our Literary Heritage –
How wonderfully rich and absorbing our English language is, how perfectly it can contain and express the nonsense that goes on inside our hearts and heads.

In Praise of White Trousers –
What a strange race we are!

Minor Accomplishments –
Looking back over our lives, it's remarkable how many silly inconsequentials linger in our memory.

Setting a New World Record (nearly) –
An Australian student of Sri Chinmoy called Prabhir and I once entered into a public race in upstate New York – was it a half-marathon?

Paths to Tranquility –
I hate yoga. There, I've said it! Believe it or not though, I once taught yoga at an adult education night class in Auckland, a course called 'Paths to Tranquility' which combined yoga, meditation and nutrition.

Free Champagne –
I was on the first leg of a homeward journey, New York to Los Angeles, when this misadventure started.

A Rare Ten out of Ten –
Over the Northern Hemisphere winters Sri Chinmoy and a number of his fortunate students spend a month or two in warmer parts of the planet.

Captain Ahab Harpoons a White Woman –
On another occasion I played Captain Ahab from Moby Dick and all I had to say was 'Ahoy matey! Is that the white whale I've been searching for? Out of my way, woman! I'll harpoon that blubbery fish that took me leg!'

Another Awkward Moment –
While on the subject of plays, for obvious reasons I like non-speaking parts the most and I've been a dead body in two plays, a tree, the rear end of a two man silent elephant and many times a walk-on extra who just mutters occasionally and jumps about.

Peace of the Basket Weavers –
It was in Myanmar on our last trip there that this amusing trifle took place.

Heart Surgery –
Prior to Shardul's fourth open-heart surgery in Auckland, we were sitting in his hospital room waiting for the pre-surgery procedures to begin.

Trembling Earth –
Last night, 3.05am exactly, a sharp jolt, the great tectonic plates far beneath my pillow adjusting themselves, the earth trembling; here on the Pacific Rim of Fire these mini-quakes are common.

Wrestling In Spaghetti –
In 1979 my companion Subarata and I travelled from Perth in Western Australia to Adelaide in South Australia via circuitous ways and innumerable adventures, eventually settling out near Port Adelaide and the beginnings of another kind of odyssey.

An Inspiring Prasad! –
Prasad is normally a food item given by a spirtual master to a disciple or seeker – it has been blessed by the master’s meditation.

The Wedding Gift –
I’ve only ever been to two weddings in my life. One was my own – hardly a wedding at all but a registry office formality about as inspiring as a visit to the bank.

A Wedding and A Funeral –
On the long (painful) flight from the U.S. to Auckland recently I was remembering some people from my long ago, and penned this little semi-autobiographical story...