This Thursday afternoon I will be returning after 11 years to spend another 8 months in India. This time I will be working at the University of Agricultural Sciences assisting with field research into advancing agricultural sustainability in Northern Karnataka. This position is through a partnership between the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute , Queens University and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
This is the place I will be sharing photos and stories from my Indian experience over the next 8 months as well as posting some of my work such as papers, compilations, drawings, comics and sculptures made of perfectly good food.
Some works to look forward to in the future:
- My paper that was just presented at the Association for Baha’i Studies North America Conference, ‘Abdu’l-Baha the Environmentalist.
- A compilation of passages from Shoghi Effendi’s World Order of Baha’u’llah letters on the subject of natural resource management.
- A paper to be co-written with Chloe Filson on the interpretation of passages of ‘Abdu’l-Baha that have been applied to the subject of climate change.
- My ridiculous 2004 article on fasting in Thailand.
- The completion of my children’s illustrated semi-autobiographical travelogue in verse, The Boy Who Left Home also co-written with Chloe Flison – four years in the making.
- The published and unpublished comics written and illustrated by Chloe and myself.
Some posts to watch out for:
- Photos from tonight’s Vegetarian Pot-Luck /Going Away Party /Blog-Launch /Stuff-Giveaway /Devotional Gathering /Scrabble Tournament.
- My arrival in Dharwad.
- My nostalgic pilgrimage to Panchgani, the town my family lived in when I was 12.
- Short videos of traditional music in India.
- God-willing, stories from a month of service at the Lotus temple in Delhi.
- Heart-warming stories about diarrhea.
- Photos from my stopover on the way back home in Bahrain and Qatar.
There are many ways you can enjoy the site, RSS fiends will be able to have their way with my content using their reader of choice, and others can easily sign up to have my content sent to them as it is posted here. A huge thanks to Dan Jones (AKA Dragfyre) for his help in setting up the site.
Samuel Benoit 
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