Dear family and friends,

The month of May has so far been one of celebration, bereavement, remembrance, family closeness, career progress and preparing for this summer’s events.

In the early May bank holiday weekend, Heena and I spent 3 days in Brighton to celebrate her birthday, where we feasted at several of Brighton’s many vegetarian / vegan restaurants. If you’re going to Brighton, I highly recommended the vegetarian restaurant Terre à Terre.

We held bhakti (devotional prayers) on Saturday 16th May in memory of Heena’s father who passed away 9 years ago and in memory of Heena’s kaka (father’s brother) who passed away 6 years ago, and a sadadi /prathna sabha (prayer meeting) on Saturday 23rd May for our dear nanima (my mum’s mum) who passed away in Nairobi earlier this month.

On Monday 25th May, a few of the family got together to write kankotris / invitations for my brother Sawan’s wedding which is taking place in August. It was a productive day, and with the recent bereavements in the family, it was wonderful to have the warmth of the family come together.

Preparation is coming along well for the session titled “Revealing the Gremlins” which I’ll be presenting at the Young Jains International Convention this July. It’s about recognising the barriers we face when working towards our goals, and explores what karma is really about. If you want to know more about this, you can read an introduction to the session ‘Revealing the Gremlins’ .

The convention is taking place on the weekend of 17th to 19th July in London, and is open to all ages (aimed mostly at age 16 to 35 and beyond, although there’s a special kids convention taking place alongside it). Do register to attend if it sounds interesting - the cost is heavily subsidised, and registration includes delicious Jain vegan meals! Let me know if you’d like to know more, or see www.youngjains.org.uk/convention for details.

Public speaking is also becoming an important element in my career, where last week I was invited to a conference to speak about digital marketing strategies to a room full of university marketing and communications professionals. This is really important for me because my role at Chameleon Net focuses on building relationships with existing clients and attracting more clients from the higher education sector. I received some very constructive feedback from the session I presented, which will help to make me a better public speaker over time.

Next month, Heena and I will be celebrating six months being married (and incidentally a year since I proposed to her). It’ll consist of more preparation towards the Young Jains Convention in July and Sawan’s wedding in August. Of course, June is also the month in which I’ll be growing a year older / wiser!

As you can see, the next few months will be quite action-packed, so thanks to all who have been patient with me about arranging to spend some quality one-on-one time together - this will happen September 2009 onwards…

With love,
Suraj

My friends and I regularly visit the vegan-friendly cafe ‘Beatroot’ on Berwick Street, Soho, London UK before our weekly Jain study group session.  I think the food there is excellent, especially the vege-sausage rolls and the dairy-free flapjack.

Edward, one of the owners, gives us a guided tour and the ethos behind Beatroot.

One of the customers of Beatroot shares his experience of dining there:

Edward, co-owner of Beatroot, wraps up with a final video shoot:

Beatroot Cafe

92 Berwick Street, Soho, London W1F OQD  United Kingdom

Tel: +44 20 7437 8591

Monday - Friday 9am - 9pm
Saturday 11am - 9pm
Bank Holidays 11am - 9pm

http://beatroot.org.uk

Anytime you do something in your life that’s different, even if it is to empower yourself or improve your health, if those closest to you feel it’s different enough for them not to fit in, then whatever their relationship is with you will get amplified.

This is the core message shared in the following video by Dhrumil Purohit, who highlights the difference in the way his relationship with his (then) girlfriend changed compared to the relationship he has with his father when Dhrumil embarked on a vegan diet at the age of 18.

Food, Relationships and Acceptance from Dhrumil Purohit on Vimeo.

Dhrumil has over the years transformed his eating habits into a primarily raw diet, and has created a supportive community called We Like It Raw.  Dhrumil also shares pearls of wisdom through audio podcasts at SpiritualPlayer.com

Just like Dhrumil, both Heena and I decided to embark on a vegan diet following a PETA video presentation about the maltreatment of cows in India that we both saw at a Jain event. For us, it was at the Mahavir Janma Kalyanak event which we attended in London in April 2008. The event celebrated the birth of Mahavir Bhagwan, and was a time for us to take inspiration from his life and absorb some of the core qualities he lived by.

In the 10 months since this change in diet, Heena and I have found it relatively simple to prepare and enjoy vegan meals, and have been fortunate to have the support of each other and those who are closest to us. There have of course been incidents when even people closest to us have indicated that trying to cater for us has been really difficult, but on the whole we have received love and support from the people who matter.

It appears therefore, that when you make a firm decision to transform any element of your life, if your decision is resolute and unshakable, and if you do not hesitate with the next step you are taking, then the path clears for you to do what it is that you need to do. The relationships where you will receive the most support will, through amplification, reveal themselves.

I have just returned from an indulgent vegan-friendly, jazzy-vibe, alcohol-free, stripper-free stag do. My brothers set up a semi-surprise priceless night out.

Just 48 hours earlier, Kavit asked me if I’d like to have a stag do on Friday night.  I said no thanks.  The wedding’s minimalist and low-key, and I didn’t really feel like having a stag do which involved getting drunk and ogling nude women.  Turns out he convinced me to have one, with a twist.  Kavit and Sawan took care of everything.

Vegan-friendly

I’ve been following a vegan diet since April (over 8 months now), so they made arrangements to have dinner at one of the best vegan-friendly restaurants in Britain.  The customer service was excellent, and everyone was really impressed with the food.  The next time you’re in London, make a special effort to visit Mildreds in Soho.  Although they have a no booking policy (other than for the private dining room), and they’re always busy, it’s well worth arriving early and waiting to be seated.

Alcohol-free

Following an intention to be more alert and aware of my surroundings and take considered action, I have been keeping away from consuming alcohol for the last couple of months.  I decided to drink no beer, wine or spirits all evening, which everyone around me kindly supported (following a little stubborn-ness from from my side).

Stripper-free… but I’m up for some jazz

There’s a certain level of respect I have for women and see no reason to spend part of my pre-marriage time pleasing my visual senses and igniting my passions at the sight of luscious curves on a stranger’s body.

Instead I diverted my sensual pleasures to that of vibrant jazz music.  The boys had made reservations at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in Soho, one of the UK’s foremost jazz venues.  Not only that, but they had unknowingly booked seats at the venue for the multi-award-winning trombonist Dennis Rollins - someone who bassist Darren Taylor of Jazzreloaded has highly recommended over the last few years. 

The perfect stag night

So it turns out that I had manifested the perfect stag-night: vegan-friendly, alcohol-free (for me at least), immersed in jazz music which I love, and not a single stripper or hooker in sight (even though we were in the heart of Soho)!

At the drop of a hat, my dear brothers and friends who could make it decided that they will be there.  Sawan, Kavit, Sagar, Deep, Amit & Ash - blessings to each of you for making the night so special.

A 17 year old from New York shares with me his sources of inspiration and guidance, and benefits of following a raw food diet already for over 5 months:

Suraj (15:19:07): so anyway, you were saying about Raw…
Ankit (15:19:43): yeah — i’d say it was mainly dhru’s welikeitraw.com site in addition to the raw community website, giveittomeraw.com (kind of like a facebook for raw foodies/people that want to be raw)
Ankit (15:20:19): also, rawmodel.com is a blog run by this model, anthony anderson, who blogs rather frequently about raw foods, fitness and sustainable living
Ankit (15:20:31): i kind of went through almost the entire archives
Ankit (15:20:37): and founds TONS of great pointers
Suraj (15:21:51): what’s been YOUR motivation for being 100% raw?  What benefit have you seen already?  Perhaps there’s a blog post you’ve written about this already?
Ankit (15:22:14): i’ve thrown in bits and pieces throughout my blogs
Ankit (15:22:40): you could probably ctrl+F “raw” in my blog posts from march onwards if you want to check that out
Ankit (15:22:50): but really — it’s just a feeling of purity
Ankit (15:22:58): you feel good, all the time
Ankit (15:23:03): your mind is clear
Ankit (15:23:08): you don’t find yourself thinking about food
Ankit (15:23:12): you detach yourself from it
Ankit (15:24:00): on top of that, on a more superficial note, it clears acne (mostly from the loss of dairy, but even more so from eating unprocessed, uncooked in oil foods)
Ankit (15:25:03): and it sheds any undesired fat. i wasn’t actually heavyset prior to going raw, but i had a negligible bit of fat on my stomach. after going raw, however, that just burned right off and the sixpack abs i never thought would come reveal themselves
Ankit (15:25:40): in addition to that, however, you just open yourself up to a world of good, delicious, healthy foods
Ankit (15:25:51): it’s wild what you can do with naturally occurring foods
Suraj (15:26:23): this sounds great - I’m really inspired to explore the raw route - thank so much for your guidance Ankit
Ankit (15:27:02): not a problem. i’m always down to help a friend out

According to his blog, Ankit Shah is a “kid that cares for little more than open minds, strong opinions, passion, genuinity, a good laugh and conscious living for the people and the world around me. Into raw living, mother nature, awareness, fitness, honesty and international music.”

Check out Ankit Shah’s blog at ankittt.blogspot.com

Ever since going down the vegan path in April, I stopped having coffee at the office as the coffee there is instant, and the milk always curdled whenever I made it the coffee with soya milk.

Now I’ve discovered a way to enjoy instant coffee with soya milk that doesn’t curdle.

How To Stop Soya Milk Curdling In Instant Coffee In 3 Easy Steps:

• Step #1: Boil the kettle, put the instant coffee granules in the mug, (add sugar as required).
• Step #2: Pour the boiled water into the mug, and let it sit there for 5 minutes.
• Step #3: Add Alpro soya milk and enjoy your coffee!

The trick here is hidden in step #2 - waiting for the coffee to cool down a little before adding milk will stop it from curdling.

So, when shall we get together for that authentic conversation over a decent (instant) coffee?

Scratchy throat. Hmmm, nothing quite like honey, lemon and hot water to soothe the throat.

Don’t forget to add grated ginger to the mix!

I was round at Arvind Devalia’s home in St. John’s Wood for lunch this afternoon - we talked about the projects he’s currently working on, the way he can serve more people as an internet social entrepreneur, and about how he can make his great book available for people to buy as gifts for Christmas and the New Year…

Arvind Devalia
Get The Life You Love And Live It

Sol Shah Getting A Copy Of
Arvind Devalia’s Book
From Under Arvind’s Bed