Thinking Through to the Other Side

This is a story about three years the author spent in India, not as a seeker of Truth in an ashram but as a mother caring for two little boys while her journalist husband covered stories all over South Asia. Instead of Truth, she found many truths about India and Indians and about herself and the rewards and challenges of adventure.'In Hindu terms, I was a householder when I lived in Delhi, and now I am a forest dweller, an older person somewhat removed from the busyness of work and family life. I want to share what India gave me in return for my sometimes hapless efforts to understand it.'Lynn Litterine was raised on the Hudson River across from 168th Street in New York. Her father was a plumber who kept journals off and on throughout his life. Her mother was home full time and told her great stories with beginnings, middles, and ends, usually while she cooked. She liked school, unless her teacher was scary. She quit college twice in the ’60s then blundered into newspapers and found her home and her people at the Hudson Dispatch, the Bergen Record, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. She wrote and edited primarily for feature sections as they evolved from Women’s World to Lifestyle. Her most memorable interviews were with two idols, Bette Davis and Allen Ginsberg. She married a journalist and had two sons. While they were young, she squeezed freelance writing in where she could. She finally got her BA from Bryn Mawr College at age 50 and then an MA in creative writing from Temple University two years later. She’s taught writing at universities and for the federal government. As soon as she retired, she began writing creative nonfiction exclusively. Now she lives in Philadelphia for the fourth time; it seems to be home.