"Even if nobody shows up," I said to myself, "I will sit for an hour, do a reading and reflect on it." I then added: "I commit to doing so for a year."

I needn't have bothered. :) What started with four individuals became ten, expanding to twenty-five or more when we had speakers.

A year ago, I decided to start the Circle in Hyderabad. The need for a group sitting was growing in me, and I remembered the beauty of the Circle at the Santa Clara home, and the ones that I had been to with Pavi on our book tour.

Since our house is far from the city, I asked a yoga teacher who has a beautiful studio in a green garden if she would host the Circle there. She immediately agreed. We made some local tweaks: since many participants had young children we decided to host it at 3pm and not have dinners. Like some of the other Circles in India, we pick readings from the archives rather than neccesarily use the one that is mailed out.

It is hard to believe that 12 months have gone by. Nipun spoke movingly about the origins of the Circle at his parents house and the stories from there, Ragu spoke after a workshop that he and Nisha conducted, as did Saraswathi Vasudevan, one of the leaders of yoga and healing in India.

To mark the occasion, some one brought a cake with 1 on it. Someone else brought poha. Even more appropriately, we gathered all the readings from the past year and created a booklet. About 40 copies were printed out to share with all those who come to our Circle. On the last page of the booklet it says:
 

A bow of gratitude to:

- The Mehta family for sitting in silence all those many years ago, thereby setting in motion a pattern that is carried out in cities all over the world.

- ServiceSpace and Nipun for extraordinary support to this little neck of the woods.

- Mamatha for her warmth, generosity and immediate willingness to give our Circle a home.

- All the Circle members for being so caring and committed.