http://www.amazon.com/In-Himalayan-Nights-Anoop-Chandola/dp/0982998708
"Dehradun City, Himalayas, India 1977: Two bright, beautiful, lesbian research assistants accompany their Indian professor to this city near the tense borders of China and Nepal to observe the âholy-warâ dance of the Mahabharata and its link to polygamy and local heroes (or villains?). The girls begin to question the holiness of the Bhagavad Gitaâs two polygamist avatars while watching the dance, even as they fall in love with India and their friendly hosts. While gathering data on womenâs rights violations, caste discrimination, and animal cruelty, they discover more about their own culture, their relationship and themselves. When their hosts uncover the womenâs secret love-life, they turn against them and the research team's existence is threatened. Will the Indian "holy-war" become a personal one between locals and outsiders, men against women, polygamists against lesbians, Indians against Americans? The answer lies in the Himalayan nights..." The professor discusses Maharishi and the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath with fellow Indians at one point. Anoop Chondola is a an anthropologist and linguist specializing in Indian studies. He learned to meditate from the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath who was the direct successor of Gurudev. His family has close ties to the organization of scholars and religious leaders who chose Gurudev to be the Shankaracharya, so he has an interesting perspective on things. L
