Vannakkam: My wife and I have been living on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius since December 1. It has been a retreat. The first month was getting accustomed, the second month was intense religious stuff, and now we're more or less on holidays, relaxing, having fun, so I decided I'd start posting again. Mentally, we're back home already, as its just over a week until we go home to Canada.

Mauritius is an amazing place for Hindus. Only 1.3 million people, but the majority is Hindu. Tons of bhakti, lots of temples, (The Tamil Temple Federation has 160 member temples, and Tamils are outnumbered by North Indian style Hindus about 3 to 1.) friendly people, great weather, beautiful beaches. On Shivaratri, the sacred lake in the middle of the island draws around 400 000 people, almost a third of the island. So for someone in the west looking for a retreat place, I would highly recommend it. It's the fastest growing economy in Africa, so unlike India, its got lots of western style stuff like malls and Walmart like stores - a mix of east and west.

More later.

Aum namasivaya