I had emailed my sudden decision to visit Gurudaan. Gurudaan was an independent housing complex near Gurgaon owned by a popular Guru of meditation. The complex was administered by the professional business trust of Gurudaan. Guru Disha’s office had immediately accepted me as a faith visitor and promised to help make my stay in Gurudaan memorable. Through the haze of jet lag I saw familiar flyovers and racing cars heading for unknown destinations. It was a strange day with a bright and blinding Sun I had never encountered before.

We arrived at a massive gate and a guard allowed the Toyota driven by Ravi to enter. It was a very green and clean tree lined area. This was Gurudaan.  The unique feature I noticed was the large amount of speed breakers which slowed us down and gave a dreamy fair ground quality to my ride to the Ashram. A very tall sentry with a big moustache opened the door of the car and I entered a house through a small door cut out in the big imposing gate.

A young girl in saffron stood with her arms folded in prayer and greeting and she said, ‘welcome to Gurudaan’ and garlanded me with a string of marigolds. I felt a little strange because of this ceremony. It was so simple and so, so, well, Oriental? Eastern?