Conversations....

'Are you Indian?' the girl smiled as I settled into my seat on the TGV.
'I'm from India' I replied, 'and I live in London'.

'You know, I love the icons of the gods and goddess from India,' she said.
'They are fantastic,' I said, 'a living proof of India's tremendous contribution to the world'.

'Have you been to Paris before,' she asked.
'Yes, like India, France is a republic. So there is an identification there. In London the identification is different.'

'How so,' she asked.
'Well, when i look at the buildings in London, I have a feeling that all this infrastruture has been built with our wealth, wealth from 'india' as the subcontinenet is known as today - and therefore i have a right to it. After all, England is rich because India is poor'.

'Interesting thoughts,' she said.
'It's only my view,' I grinned. 'Freedom of thought and freedom of expression are rights fundamental to all human beings.'

'Indians say that the world is an illusion, don't they,' she said glancing at me.
'What they really mean is that the world is made of the same material that dreams are made of, though they appear to be completely different - like carbon and diamonds'. I said

'Hmm, is it true that arranged marriages are very common in India? What kind of marriage would you go in for?' she asked thoughtfully.
'A love-marriage, an arranged marriage or a live-in relationship - to me, these are merely different approaches and have little relevance. Surely, the actual relationship beween individuals who choose to live together, is more important than the approach'.

'Very true - do you believe in re-incarnation?' she asked.
'Re-incarnation is a biological fact. The materialist conditioning may find it difficult to comprehend the concept, but the fact is, nothing really gets created or destroyed - energy gets recycled all the time. For example - the carbon atoms which we have in our bodies now, have been used in countless other molecules since the beginning of time - when an organism 'dies', the carbon atom does not 'die' but continues to 'live' and gets re-used in another molecule in another organism. The ancient indians knew this tens of thousands of years ago. In fact, the Sanskrit word for the human being is 'purusha' - which means one who dwells in the human body. Also, if one believes in re-incarnation, then, what one does now, at this moment, becomes tremendously significant and not what lies at the end'.

'Very very interesting, we must continue our conversation another time. Would you like some coffee....' she said.
'Sure - let's go and get some coffee....'