Episode 1 - Why Bollywood and Books?

[00:00:00] Join me on an adventure. A literary romp through India. Meet me at the corner of Patchouli and Chai, where books, cinema, and conversation collide. I'm Lovelace Cook. I'll be your tour guide. Welcome to Bollywood and Books.

[00:00:23] Travel to India was never on my radar. I awoke one day like Rip Van Winkle, and I felt like my life had slowed to a state of torpor. It was the month before my 62nd birthday. My life was just stale. I wasn't growing, my friends were retiring nearing retirement age, but they seemed like they were approaching life as if it were the last chapter.

[00:00:58] I couldn't see that for myself. There had to be more. So I decided to open myself to the universe and I literally said I'm open you're limitless. I did it fearlessly, not anticipating what was just around the corner. Life handed me in an adventure, an unexpected journey. I just wanted to get out of my comfort zone, but I learned be careful what you wish for

[00:01:26] By chance, I met an Englishman who was visiting my little town. He talked about India, showed me photos of his travels and we fell in love. Of course, life is never so simple, but it does make for a good story. I was saving to travel to Machu Picchu. I envisioned myself on a trek, riding horses and camping with a group in Peru.

[00:01:53] The Englishman plan to travel back to India in January, 2013. And he asked me to meet him in [00:02:00] Mumbai. It almost became a dare. It must've been after midnight when we were on a Skype call on a cold January night, the Englishman was in Gokarna in the marketplace. It's a little town South of Goa. He said, you're not coming are you.

[00:02:21] I heard a chanting in the background, Ram Nam, Ram Nam and I asked him to turn his iPad so I could see what was going on. There was a procession of Indian men, all wearing white, and they were carrying a stretcher with the body of what had to be a Holy man. He had long white hair. A long, white beard. He was dressed in white and covered in marigolds. The sun seemed to envelop the procession in an other worldly glow. There was magic in that moment and it [00:03:00] touched m

[00:03:10] Okay. That's it I'll come. I didn't have a clue what was in store for me. Two weeks later, I was living in a tree house on the beach next to the Arabian sea. This was not your Airbnb luxury tree house, not even a Tarzan and Jane tree house, but a crude little dwelling perched in a tree with Palm fronds for its roof, and a bamboo ladder to climb up through a hole in a plywood floor no less.

[00:03:43] There was a naked light bulb hanging from the rafters. It was crude. It was outhouse, an outdoor shower, rugged. Who knew two people could be so different in their travel styles. He was used to wild camping, and I'd been a miserable girl [00:04:00] scout. It became apparent from the start that our trip was to be nothing like the film, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

[00:04:08] My friends all imagined that was what was happening for me, but it was much more of a Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad experience. And I'd brought along a copy to share with my Englishman thinking it apropos, but not really understanding just how well it would fit the situation. The heat and humidity in India were incredible.

[00:04:32] It was a challenge. I left comfortable, sleepy little town life with hot and cold running water temperature controlled environment. People I knew who went to India, went on a yoga retreat or maybe a spiritual quest, or even for mission work. I simply went to see what I was made of and when the going got tough, as it did pretty quickly, I felt I needed to prove myself to myself.

[00:05:00] I confess at the outset, I was truly the ugly American. It didn't occur to me until much later, maybe three months after I got back home later that I traveled, expecting things to