A Vanished Road: travelling eastwards through distant lands now changed forever - Softcover

Schlegel, Veena

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1505563984 ISBN 13: 9781505563986

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

Synopsis

A Vanished Road is a travel story. It is an account of a journey overland through Middle Eastern countries to India in 1971. The world then was a very different place to the one it is today. The countries I and five travelling companions travelled through – by train, boat, bus, local indescribable vehicles and sometimes on foot – were untouched and unspoilt by tourism and other international influences. Television was still a novelty in western countries; here it was unknown. For most of the local people, the hippies travelling through, breaking that later quite well-trodden trail, were the first westerners they had ever seen. There were no maps or guidebooks. The only guide was the hippie grapevine and the pointing of a local’s finger. Toby and Marianne Wheeler, founders of the famous Lonely Planet guidebooks, traversed this road a year later – a journey which provided the inspiration for the beginning of their venture. English was rare, other languages unknown, so communication took place on a different level – via the heart, via intuition. It was always a guessing game! Our experiences were varied and unique. Sometimes we were met by innocent interest and open-hearted generosity, sometimes by infuriatingly deliberate stonewalling, sometimes by suspicion and hostility. We needed to keep our wits about us and be very patient. It was usually a smile and a calm centeredness that got us through. The journey was physically and emotionally tough and demanding but the reward was a deeply touching and life-changing experience which cannot now be repeated. With the events of the last few decades – tragic in the case of Afghanistan – this road, with its unique flavour, has vanished forever.

About this title

About the Author

After completing her university studies in 1966 in South Africa, where she was born and brought up, Veena Schlegel left home to see the world. In 1971 she travelled overland on an epic journey through unknown lands to India where she met her spiritual master, the enlightened mystic, Osho, in Mumbai − and her life changed forever. This was a new and different journey. Until Osho died in 1991, she lived and worked in his various communes in India and around the world. After his death she travelled further east on her spiritual quest, first to Japan where she taught English and explored Zen, and more recently to China which she visits often to meditate on the sacred Song Mountain in Henan Province. She has discovered much of the historical and spiritual (particularly Zen) heritage of this area as well as learning in detail about local traditional customs and contemporary Chinese life. She has written about Osho and his life and work for many publications in paper or online and is now working on a trilogy of books detailing her travels on the path. The first book, 'A Vanished Road’ is an account of her overland journey to India. The second book, 'Glimpses of my Master' is an account of her life as a disciple of Osho. ((Both are available as ebooks and paperbacks on Amazon) Veena is now in China researching and writing the third book, 'A Mountain in China' (to be published shortly) which will tell of her journeys, physical and spiritual, in China. For more details please check out her website: www.3books.co.uk

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1505563984
• ISBN 13: 9781505563986
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 138