In a similar vein to Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, new author Vik Vad offers his account of spiritual awakening in Six Months in India, an intimate collection of journal entries he wrote while traveling through India as an advanced self-studies yoga project. In order to more keenly understand the Hindu culture of yoga as well as gain insight into true Indian lifestyles, Vad headed to the land where thousands of gods and goddesses are celebrated—and his extended family was waiting. One summer when the author was a child his grandfather visited from India. It was then that young Vad became intrigued at how this eighty-something-year-old man could be so youthful, but it wasn’t until he was in his thirties that curiosity got the better of him. Therein he began a transformative spiritual journey as a practitioner of yoga—and an heir to a rich history of festivals, temples, and mysticism. Through his journal keeping, he describes what it’s like to live in an Indian household, participate in the Indian community, and worship as Hindus do, sparing no details. Told with a decidedly American candor and wit, this rewarding philosophical memoir is perfect for purveyors of yoga or those planning Eastern travels, and includes a glossary of Sanskrit terms—not to mention the “big picture” of how people live, laugh, love, play, work, pray, think, and behave on the other side of the world. There is poverty and pollution, but more than anything there is spirit and joy. And while Vad did explore yoga in its original context, he came to appreciate the differences between yoga in the West and how traditional Hindus see and live it.