Author-couple Novel and Ashok Lavasa’s book, Echoes of Faith, is about oneness with nature
Vikrant Parmar
At first there was the usual chatter, some echoes and then silence, as pearls of wisdom began to flow like a river that runs deep. At the launch of author couple Novel Lavasa and Ashok Lavasa’s book, Echoes of Faith: Tales of Exploration, Nature and Divinity, at the Government Museum and Art Gallery on Friday evening, it was about history, spirituality, mythology, nature and more.
Co-incidentally, it all began in the City Beautiful in the times gone by. “Often on weekends, we would travel to the hills and be one with nature, along with friends and their children. That clime, the overall ambience goaded me to explore and thereon began a journey of faith,” Novel, a banker and an environmentalist, set into motion a conversation that spawned thought.
Their travels, across the length at breadth of the country — from the Chur Dhar peak in Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh, to the Kabir Gufa in Bandhavgarh, Madhya Pradesh, among the many others —form the nucleus of the book, which by no means is a travel piece.
Says Ashok, the co-author, civil servant and former Election Commissioner of India, “It is not a travelogue, but a journey of faith. It is an honest sharing of thoughts and feelings. It about pensive moods; these stories are about moments enjoyed in peace and internalised.”
Quoting English poet William Wordsworth’s verses, as also Urdu and Hindi couplets, Ashok, a man ‘who spoke when it mattered and stood up when it counted’, admits that being a literature student he developed a deep perspective on life. “Our journey is about enquiry, adventure and empathy. It’s about faith, which can be interpreted differently,” he says.
Faith is sure a matter of personal belief — the conversation meandered into the philosophical realm. “Ordinary people can be great too and so can the places; this is what the book is about. I am an agnostic, yet all these journeys taught me a lesson in life. Nature is an ally, it’s a force that is palpable; it teaches and chides in equal measure — it’s for us to understand. We need to pick what is best for the human race,” says Ashok.
On a lighter note, travels like these cannot be undertaken when kids are a priority. “That is where help came in from my husband, always. Now that the kids are all grown up, travel is what it is,” beams Novel.
Many frontiers await them yet. They, of course, believe in going the distance!
