Vidyabhyasa

By the lobby-staircase of the Hotel Taj Residency, a foreign man in blue-jeans sat cross-legged on the floor, on the carpet. Four Indians in formal wear sat in deep chairs round him with PowerPoint open on their laptops and took instruction from him. The scene reminded me of sketches in recurrent issues of Chandamama during my childhood: the guru sat on a mound by a tree and the disciples lower before him. A bright yellow halo shone behind the guru's piled coiled pyramidical hair. Here before me was a new-age gurukula.

I went on upstairs to join a class of ninety-nine business people, to take training from a pumped-up American on how to grow a business.

Image: DharmaWiki