America
My journey from New York to Himalayas inspired 'The Seeker': Karan Bajaj
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By Kavita Bajeli-DattNew Delhi, June 14
He left his cushy job as a top executive in a New York firm to search for that elusive answer about death and suffering.
After
a year-long sabbatical through a Buddhist retreat in the Scottish
ighlands to the rugged terrain of the Himalayas, writer Karan Bajaj says
he has just "scratched the surface" and "one lifetime will not be
enough" for his quest. But the outcome of his soul searching journey is
his third novel, "The Seeker" (Rs. 200 on Flipkart).
Published
worldwide by Penguin Random House India and released in India on June
11, "The Seeker" is the story of an investment banker in New York who
embarks on a journey to become a yogi in the Himalayas.
In an
e-mail interview with IANS, Bajaj, 35, whose first novel 'Keep off the
Grass' was a bestseller which is now being turned into a movie, said he
is trying to live like a "yogi". Even after returning to New York and
joining another firm as an executive, he is trying to work with complete
"selflessness and honesty".
Asked why he chose the
unconventional path of leaving everything in search of answers, Bajaj
said: "The Bhagavad Gita says that each man's soul cries for the
infinite in the finite world, hence that indescribable feeling of
something missing from one's grasp even in moments of deep achievement."
"We all hear that call. I think it was less courage and more necessity that made me answer it.
"My
mother's young, untimely death from cancer unsettled me quite a bit and
forced me to confront the questions about the cause of suffering and
death that had been in the back of my mind for years," said Bajaj, who
spent his childhood almost like a nomad changing 12 schools in as many
years as his father was in the Indian Army.
So, did he find the
answers after his roller-coaster journey in which his wife Kerry was
also a partner? "I ask myself that question often. I think I came back
because I still feel a need to push myself more in the man-made world
before I opt out of it," Bajaj said.
Bajaj is a believer in the
Yoga Sutras ethos that "man's purpose is first evolution, then
involution: an eagle in perfect rhythm flaps its wings high, then brings
them down gracefully. If it kept flapping higher, its wings would
break. If it always kept its wings down, it would never experience
flight".
Bajaj, who was a Top 10 bestselling Indian novelist in
2008 ("Keep off the Grass") and 2010 ("Johnny Gone Down"), said that we
must first push ourselves to stretch, grow and experience the world,
then detach from it.
"I'm still in the growth phase and want to
push myself more in my writing and my career. If I enter the detachment
phase, my choices may become different," said Bajaj, who graduated from
the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore in 2002 after obtaining an
engineering degree from the Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, in
2000.
Recounting his year-long spiritual and creative sabbatical,
Bajaj said he and his wife first went to a Buddhist retreat in the
Scottish Highlands, then traveled from Europe to India by road in buses,
trains and ferries and also hiked, with no particular destination in
mind.
Once in India, they stayed at the Sivananda Ashram in south
India and learnt to become yoga teachers, then lived in the Himalayas,
learning meditation and hiking. Thereafter, en route to the US, they
spent three months in an artist's residency in Portugal, researching and
writing.
So how much of his journeys are reflected in his third novel?
The
protagonist Max's rugged external adventure from the "dark underbelly
of New York to a world of hidden ashrams, surreal night markets, and
remote caves in India" is partially inspired by his journey, said Bajaj,
who was selected as one of the top 10 young business leaders of India
by the Aditya Birla Foundation and has worked in the Philippines,
Singapore and the US, as also in Europe.
He has of course fictionalised it to "make it much more pulsating and interesting".
The
couple's sabbatical did change them - so much so that they now have
stopped drinking alcohol and try not to waste time in superficial
chatter.
Even their friends' circle has changed.
"We got
rid of our TV. We're reading books much more selectively than before so
as to keep our ideas pure. Every day, something changes," explained
Bajaj, who practices yoga and mediates every day as he feels it is
"crucial" to his well-being.
Also, in his quest to live like a
yogi, he said he is trying to imbibe "the yogic ethos of dissolving
narrow sense of self and becoming a mere medium for consciousness to
express itself".
"The Buddha said that there are three phases of
learning - reading, reflection and experience. I think I've gotten most
of my answers from reading and reflecting. Experiencewise, I've barely
scratched the surface. I don't think one lifetime will be enough," Bajaj
said.
(Kavita Bajeli-Datt can be contacted at [email protected])