The Hidden Side of the Moon

These short essays, first appeared in The Statesman (Kolkata/ Delhi). The astonishingly lively response they received motivated me to compile a selection of them as a book.

I was given a long rope by the editor, Mr Ravindra Kumar, to express my experiences and views. I am deeply grateful to him. There was no interference when I started to write on personal matters-on religion and spiritual life, on my life as a writer and as a friend of Indian village life, on my travels in India and Europe; there was only encouragement. Lectures and seminars on Indian cultural subjects took me to numerous countries in Europe and to the US. This and the continuous support of the Udo Keller Foundation (Hamburg) allowed me to travel widely and unhurriedly.

I found a format for my essays which is both subjective and emotional as well as conversational and philosophical. I chose my own angle of looking at the world which flows from my Indo-German background, from my idealism, also from my Christian upbringing and sadhana and no less from my search within Hinduism and Buddhism, but above all it flows from my love for the Indian people which remains vibrant even after spending forty years in this country.

Since 1980, I have lived in Shantiniketan, therefore it is natural that Rabindranath Tagore, the one great literary inspiration of my life, and the red earth of Shantiniketan are never far from my musings. Also, I never hide my closeness to the Santal villages around Shantiniketan in whose educational and social progress I have been involved for thirty years. Also, the Ramakrishna Mission Ashram at Narendrapur, south of Kolkata, has been mentioned often. I spent three and a half years there side-by-side with the monks during the earliest phase of my stay in India.