I spent countless summers as a child in Bangalore, India ,the city of my parents' pre-immigration past. Bangalore is a breezy, tree-laden city, formerly used by colonial-era civil servants to indulge in retirement. After Indian independence, the city retained a small-town feel, becoming a quiet refuge for an array of...

When I sat down to write a post on "how to visit a Hindu temple," I'll admit that I was initially baffled. How does one visit a Hindu temple? In a literal sense, it appears obvious. First, get yourself to one. Second, take off your shoes, and third, step in....

In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, a Hindu spiritual treatise, a sage tries to describe Brahman, the indescribable force motivating existence, to a skeptically curious king. "There is a spirit in the sound of the steps of man, and that spirit I adore as Brahman," the sage explains.

On a less deep...

In my great grandmother's house in Thanjavur, a small town in Tamil Nadu, every meal represented an elaborate ritual. Each night, she washed a fresh set of clothes for the next morning (always a colorful nine yards sari and its blouse) and hung them atop the highest clothing line on...