Eduardo Saverin and Rajarshi "Raj" Ganguly are two of the three cofounders of B Capital Group, a venture capital firm with close to $800 million, split between a first and a second fund (still being raised). The third cofounder is legendary investor Howard Morgan. Brazilian Saverin, 37, is based in Singapore and best known for being the cofounder of Facebook whose shares in it give him a net worth estimated at about $10 billion.

Americans Ganguly, 43, and Morgan, 73, come from diverse backgrounds. Ganguly, based in Los Angeles, spent his early career at Bain Capital, overseeing a number of investments. Morgan, based in New York, helped start ARPAnet, the internets precursor, in the 1970s, and later was president of hedge fund Renaissance Technologies.

B Capital has dual headquarters in Los Angeles and Singapore, as well as offices in New York and San Francisco, with a total of 40 full-time staff. B Capital focuses on companies already in series B or C rounds, generally over $10 million in revenue, and looks to invest roughly $20 million. The trio would like to keep the total number of companies in each fund to about 20.

The firm has the slogan innovation without borders, reflecting the founders belief that innovation can originate anywhere, not just in Silicon Valley. B Capital also uses global consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to help it grow startups and match them with larger firms. Saverin and Ganguly sat down with Forbes Asia in an exclusive interview in September at Singapores Shangri-La hotel to discuss their goals for B Capital.

Forbes Asia: How are you deploying your capital into startups?

Eduardo Saverin: Primarily we focus on companies that have an existing level of traction. There are a lot of places where you could invest in technology, but you need to have an edge and focus. For us, together with our relationship with BCG, its about accelerating growth. Most companies we invest in have a B2B angle. When the company is still an idea on a napkin, its hard for us to introduce them to some of the largest companies in the world. So we tend to invest where theres a particular amount of value that we can bring through those corporate introductions and value acceleration, which means they tend to translate to series B and beyond. But frankly the staging is fungible. Its about traction.

Raj Ganguly: As we build the firm we want to be really conscious of being able to invest into some companies really early, probably smaller amounts of capital, and as some of those companies scale and grow, we want to bring larger amounts of capital to those companies. Then finally for some of the companies that really continue to go into highly accelerated growth mode, we would actually not just double-down, but we would take outsized ownership stakes. As were growing the capital, were increasing our ability to invest across multiple stages. The best use of our capital, rather than finding a new investment, is finding a company in our portfolio where we can see the trajectory of the company before an outsider can see it.

What is the value-add you want to bring to your entrepreneurs?

Ganguly: We focus on doing three things really well ourselves and then partnering with BCG and others for everything else. We focus on helping make introductions and really helping get that growth flywheel going. The second part is we are focused on hiring key C-level talents into companies once we invest into them. We find that every single time we make an investment, if we can help them with one or two better hires on the margin, it fundamentally changes the direction of the company. And third, we help them raise strategic capital. We think, while its great to have other venture capital firms and folks like that, there are so many large enterprises sitting on over $1 trillion of capital and many of them want to invest and partner with startups. They could be much more strategic in the capital and the value that they bring.

Saverin: One of our early investments was in a company in the clinical trials space called Evidation Health. Its a perfect example of a business where they can develop all the technologies that they would like. The truth is, success will come from adoption of virtual clinical trials from the largest pharma companies in the world. When we first met the business, it was working with a lot of smaller biotech firms, which are the traditional early adopters of such technologies. But leveraging our partnerships, including BCG, we had a chance to meet with some of the largest pharma companies in the world.

Through those discussions we understood that, unlike traditional tech innovation cycles where things over time get a little bit cheaper and faster, in the pharma world, you were seeing kind of a reverse innovation cycle where it was getting more expensive and taking longer to get to market.

And one of the largest pharma companies in the world took one of their existing trials that they had already done, and then just replicated it through a virtual standpoint, and saw both the speed, the cost effectiveness, and the depth of the data. That gave us conviction to invest, because we knew there was a real appetite for experimentation. Today, that business has most of the largest pharma companies in the world as customers. Some of them have become investors.

Ganguly: It just announced, a few weeks ago, a landmark partnership in dementia with Apple and Eli Lilly. Weve been a part of helping make some of those connections.

Whats unique about B Capitals approach to investments?

Ganguly: There are four key parts of our model. Its about global thematic investing, one single team leveraging global data. Its about deep local expertise in each market that we invest in. Its about being the single highest value-add investor in every company and having the capital through partnerships with our investors and through our own capital to fund the growth of these companies as they scale. Our risk model is a lower risk model than early stage, which is about investing in ideas on a napkin, and having one of 20 companies that you know will drive your whole returns. Our model is about backing companies that have customer traction, that have a founding team that has high potential. We are looking for large potential customers and large potential partnerships that further mitigate risks. We believe our approach has upside because were investing in companies that are growing at 100% plus a year.

Saverin: The VC game is an information edge game. You need to leverage it not just in the first investment, but across the lifecycle of the company. Our model is about rolling up our sleeves and getting deeply involved, where entrepreneurs want us to, and where we can tremendously add value.

You believe in innovation without borders, can you expand on that idea?

Saverin: Companies are becoming global increasingly by design. Theres no border to where innovation can be received and used. Whether you start a company in Silicon Valley or in Africa or any part of the world, there really is the increasing impetus to go beyond your existing borders. When you start thinking about the evolution of innovation, some of it is the enablers, including the engineering talent. When you go to Silicon Valley, thats actually one of the hardest places in the world to get engineering talent because of the massive competition. In other parts of the world you can ask is there enough raw talent, even though its not as competitive? So well see a broader equalization. It would be hard for me to believe that as tech enablement becomes a big part of much larger industries, that all that innovation will come from one place. If that were to happen, Id do anything I can to change it because the truth is the whole world is consuming technology.

What opportunities do you see in Southeast Asia?

Ganguly: We understood early that e-commerce was being inhibited in the region because e-commerce companies had to do their own delivery. Thats what really convinced us that we wanted to invest in all the picks and shovels around e-commerce, but no longer invest in e-commerce, or at least not focus on e-commerce. So today were investors in Ninja Van, BlackBuck, Mswipe and Bizongo, all companies that enable e-commerce.

Given WeWorks pulled IPO, have valuations gotten overdone?

Ganguly: Where we are in the cycle and when it changes, thats not our business. We dont time the market, but we fundamentally take a long-term perspective. There are times when youre in a cycle and you have to pay a little bit more for that. But if you have the right time horizon, we think its still far better to do that than to be looking for value plays where youre looking at the second- or third- or fourth-best company. We always say that you might sleep better if you have a value play, but you wont sleep very well when you exit because the valuation differential is even more stark when you exit a lower-tier player. It used to be that you were forced to go public because you had to pay out early investors. Thats no longer the case. You can now continue to stay private, and have access to very large amounts of private capital. Your early investors can cash out because later stage investors are willing to buy them out. Theres a very active secondary market. Whats changed is I think theres no longer this belief that going public is something that you have to do. There are a lot of questions about whether going public drives long-term value. While its worked for some companies, it hasnt worked for others.

What would be the process if a portfolio company might fit with Facebook?

Saverin: We are trying to facilitate introductions with any enabler, hopefully a win-win on both sides. So Facebook of course would be part of that equation, and parts of its strategy that converge with some of our focus areas, especially in financial services. Many companies will already have some type of relationship with Facebook, given where Facebook is today, through WhatsApp or otherwise. The innovation ecosystem touches Facebook all the time, so its just a question of extent.

Where is B Capital going to be in 10 years?

Saverin: Thats an important question. I usually think about it in two ways. We are incredibly ambitious, and we want to have an institution that will outlive us, so we are always thinking of the very long term. One thing I say every single day, whether in our partner meetings, or when we speak to our entrepreneurs, is to always push focus. Focus on what youre doing today, thats how youre going to get to a bigger vision ten years from now, and even a vision well past our lifetimes. But at a really top level what I want us to do is to enable technology to get into the hands of consumers faster by leveraging the existing distribution networks of the largest companies in the world. Push intrapreneurship, it doesnt necessarily need that push, but enable them to not only think of disruption but a positive win-win transformation. Its not about the top ten tech companies that will take over a market by themselves, but the enablement of every company in the world with technology in collaborative innovation.

What do you mean by collaborative innovation?

Saverin: This is a really high-level idea, that can be seen in the platform technologies, such as Facebook, WeChat and others. They have created massive innovation acceleration by enabling other businesses to come on top of their platforms to gain distribution and engagement. What we are looking for is a win-win using the distribution assets of the largest companies in the world to ultimately get API-ed to the innovation ecosystem. If we get even 0.5% of the way in driving that, we will be doing the right thing for ten years from now. I think its not always a success when a startup out-innovates and massively disrupts a big company, when it could have leveraged a big companys distribution, the licenses, the regulatory know-how, and so on, so that consumers could get the advantages of technology much faster.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

More here:
Borderless Investing: Eduardo Saverin And Raj Ganguly Grow B Capital - Forbes

India's association with the Nobel Prize goes back, across centuries and latitudes. Poet, writer and thinker Rabindranth Tagore brought glory to the country when he became the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize for the country. The 52-year-old Tagore was accorded the honour in 1913, 12 years after it made its debut.

Ever since, nine other laureates with an India connection have been conferred the prestigious award in various categories, Abhijit Banerjee being the latest.

There were a few famous names who were nominated several times, but failed to bag the award. While Indian poet Sri Aurobindo was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1943 and 1950, the committee had considered Mahatma Gandhi for the Peace Prize five times in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 & 1948 (days before his assassination).

Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel had drafted a will in 1895 where he reserved a large part of his estate to establish Nobel Prizes after concerns of how the world would remember him. He wanted the awards to be given to individuals (based on their achievements), annually, despite their nationality. He died in 1896.

It took nearly five years for the committee to set up, and the first set of awards for Physiology or Medicine, Chemistry, Literature, Physics and Peace were awarded in 1901. After 67 years, Sweden's central bank with donation from donation from the Nobel Foundation, established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1968.

Here's a look at all the Indians who brought honour to the nation.

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Tagore, Satyarthi And 8 Other Nobel Winners Who Have Made India Proud - The Indian Connection - Economic Times

Congress and the UPA have caused more damage to Indian polity, society and economy as compared to the damage England cause to India between 1600 and 1947.

Why is the Sonia Gandhi-controlled Congress destroying India socially, culturally, economically and politically; undermining the countrys democratic and constitutional institutions; and weakening the Indian State itself? This is the question which most people have started asking following the recent meeting between UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and Indian Overseas Congress leaders in London and what Corbyn said about what transpired during the meet through a tweet. Corbyns tweet read like this: A very productive meeting with UK representatives from the Indian Congress Party where we discussed the human rights situation in Kashmir. There must be de-escalation and an end to the cycle of violence and fear which has plagued the region for so long.

The answer to the questions being asked and raised by the concerned Indians about the Congress intentions is simple and straight. The Congress was not founded by the Indians for achieving freedom from imperialist Great Britain, which started interfering in the political affairs of India and exploiting the Indian weaknesses and natural resources through the canny, notorious and barbarous East India Company in 1600 A.D.

Between 1885 and 1947, the Congress served as a safety-valve for the Indian discontent. It was no more than annual forum whose deliberations were given what certain leading historians call exaggerated significance.

What happened in India between 1600 and 1857 in general and 1858 and 1885, in particular, is too well known to students of Indian history and, hence, no need to recapitulate. Suffice to say that the British imperialists devised and implemented policies calculated to

(1) consolidating and expanding their rule in India;

(2) dividing the Indian society on caste and communal lines;

(3) playing one prince/Nawab against the other;

(4) looting and plundering Indian resources and draining the Indian wealth;

(5) enriching the British economy;

(6) killing the indigenous Indian industry;

(7) pushing the outposts of the Empire further and further at the cost of the Indian exchequer;

(8) proving that their culture was superior, scientific and humane;

(9) conveying the feeling that the Indian culture and religion were responsible for the ills faced by the Indian society;

(10) creating a sense of inferiority complex among the Indians and inducing them to support the British in all matters;

(11) creating a class of loyalists among the Indians first in the shape of landlords and then the English educated Indians among the middle classes; and so on.

To be more precise, they followed a policy of divide and rule, coupled with a policy of brutal repression and reward, to accomplish their designs in India. They were successful. They ruled over India and exploited and persecuted the Indians with the help of the loyalists. Their whole policy was directed more by the British than by the Indian interests.

All this ended the patience of Indians, barring the loyalists, and made them seethe with anger. By 1885, it had become clear to British imperialists and exploiters that the situation would go out of control anytime and it had become imperative to set up an organisation in India with the help of English educated Indians so that they could avert the impending disaster before it was too late. The first initiative was taken by retired British civil servant Allan Octavian Hume. According to Sir William Wedderburn, Humes colleague and biographer, and Lala Lajpat Rai of Punjab, the reason that prompted Hume to establish an organisation was his anxiety to save India from disruption. Wedderburn, who became the first chairman of the British Committee of the Indian National Congress, formed in 1889 in London, and remained in that post till the end of his life, candidly acknowledged that Hume knew that the existing government administered by foreign officials on autocratic lines was dangerously out of touch with the people and there was an imminent danger of a violent revolt which might endanger British rule in India. It bears recalling that Hume had worked in Assam as district collector for years and he knew what was going on beneath the surface.

Anxious, alarmed and religiously committed to London as he was, Hume first held discussions with the then Conservative Governor-General and Viceroy of India Lord Dufferin and then Conservative Secretary of State for India and Marquess of Salisbury Lord Randolph Churchill. Humes views were appreciated and he was given a free hand to take the required steps. His efforts succeeded in roping in 72 English educated Indians hailing from different parts of the country and the result was the foundation of Indian National Congress in December 1885 at Bombay (now Mumbai). The clear objective was to puncture and defeat the ongoing Indian freedom struggle against the British with the help of some influential and moderate western-educated Indians like W C Bonnerjee, who believed in British sense of justice. Bonnerjee presided over the first session of the Congress.

Between 1885 and 1947, the Congress served as a safety-valve for the Indian discontent. It was no more than annual forum whose deliberations were given what certain leading historians call exaggerated significance. Indeed, there were leaders in the Congress who were genuinely committed to the cause of the country, but they were just odd faces in the party whose views were never considered. Take, for example, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Sri Aurobindo Ghose, Bepin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, who represented new Spirit, and Subhas Chandra Bose and their fate. Those who controlled the Congress organisation did not allow these great leaders to influence Congresss policy, which they rightly termed as policy of political mendicancy. The Congress split at Surat (Gujarat) in 1907 was the immediate fall-out of a conflict between the British-guided official Congress and truly nationalists like Bal, Pal and Lal. Earlier, on December 1905, when tempers were running high in the country following the partition of Bengal, President of the Benaras Congress Gopal Krishna Gokhale said while delivering his presidential address: For better, for worse, our destinies are now linked with those of England and the Congress freely recognises that whatever advance we seek must be within the empire itself.

As for Bose, he left the Congress in 1939 to found Forward Block so that he could fight for the independence of India the way he liked. He left the Congress because he defeated M K Gandhis candidate Pattabhi Sitaramayya in the 1939 presidential election. Bose had won the election for the second time in a row hands-down and commenting on the defeat of Sitaramayya, Gandhi had said that Sitaramayyas defeat was my personal defeat. Earlier in December 1928 at Calcutta (now Kolkata), Gandhi and the loyalists had opposed Subhass amendment to Motilal Nehru reports Dominion Status goal and called for immediate reiteration of the complete independence objective.

Gandhi dumb-founded the nation by withdrawing the movement at a time when the people had brought the British Government to its knees and it appeared that freedom was round the corner.

The Congress under the leadership and guidance of Gandhi did engineer three movements Non-cooperation Movement (1920-February 1922), Civil Disobedience Movement (1930-1934) and Quit India Movement (1942), but all ended in a fiasco because the Congress leadership never wanted to take things too far. In February 1922, Gandhi unilaterally withdrew the Non-cooperation Movement on the ground that an army pensioner Bhagwan Ahir and his associates burned alive 22 policemen in a police station at Chauri Chaura, Gorakhpur. Ahir and his associates were not Congressmen. Nor were they part of the Non-cooperation Movement. They had taken recourse to violence after the police had beaten up Ahir and then opened fire indiscriminately on the people who had come to lodge a strong protest in front of the police station. Gandhi dumb-founded the nation by withdrawing the movement at a time when the people had brought the British Government to its knees and it appeared that freedom was round the corner.

The Civil Disobedience Movement, which was started with much fanfare with Gandhi as its leader to attain Purna Swaraj also ended in a complete failure, notwithstanding the fact that people made supreme sacrifices for the cause of Purna Swaraj. But the Congress under Gandhi took no time in changing the goal post. In fact, Gandhi just gave an 11-point memorandum to Governor-General Lord Irwin which did not demand any change in the existing politico-constitutional structure, not even Dominion Status.

Remember, between 1928 and 1929, Gandhi had opposed those calling for another round of all-India mass struggle aimed explicitly at complete political emancipation. Gandhi rejected outright the snap independence resolution, which had been passed in his absence at the Madras session of the Congress on December 1927, and at Calcutta in December 1928, Gandhi pushed through a compromise formula that accepted Dominion Status objective provided London granted it by the end of 1929, failing which the Congress would be within its right to start Civil Disobedience for attaining Purna Swaraj. That fact of the matter is that the Civil Disobedience Movement did not achieve anything for India in the real sense of the term. India only got the Government of India act 1935 which even a liberal like C Y Chintamani described as anti-India Act.

As for the Quit India Movement, which was started in August, less said the better. The common people did make a splendid contribution to the movement ignoring the threat to their life and limb for the cause but the movement led India nowhere. The British defeated the half-hearted movement in just five months without much difficulty and London did not face any real political challenge from the Congress till August 15, 1947, when the British quit India, not because the Congress did anything great but because of three other factors pressure from below in India, international situation and the internal situation in England. It would not be out of place to mention here that Gandhi had declared in 1940 that we do not seek our independence out of Britains ruins. He made this statement in the wake of the Second World War which started in 1939. Gandhis line was inconsistent with line of Bose who wanted to strike as England was involved in the war elsewhere.

All this should prove that Congress never ever challenged England. On the contrary, it acted in a manner that always helped the British. Just compare the British social, economic, religious and political policies evolved in England and implemented in India with the policies devised and implemented by the Sonia Congress-led UPA between 2004 and 2014 and you would find no fundamental difference between them. In fact, the Congress and the UPA have caused more damage to Indian polity, society and economy as compared to the damage England cause to India between 1600 and 1947.

It would not be undesirable if one may say that the Congress is un-Indian.

Note:1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

Hari Om is former Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Jammu.

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Why is the Indian National Congress un-Indian? - PGurus

Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati came to India 25 years ago and has lived at the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh ever since. This book, which contains nuggets of wisdom, is born from the satsangs that Sadhvi holds in the evenings at the ashram.

She has a PhD in psychology, which helps her understand human mindsets and behaviour and has, thus, helped her put together this book of wisdom, which aims to answer the questions that are constantly plaguing the mind.

The writing is very simple and conversational in nature, making it an easy read. Each chapter of the book begins with a question and the rest of the chapter goes on to address it.

Sadhvi doesnt merely touch upon, but dives deep into pertinent issues surrounding peace, truth and love. If you havent had a chance to sit with your thoughts and examine them in a while, the matter presented in this book will steer you in that direction.

The book consists of stories and parables, which, when you read, makes you feel like you are sitting across Sadhvi and she is narrating them to you over a cup of tea.

The book also talks about fear, addictions and negative life patterns that we are subjected to. It guides you along the journey of introspection and attempts to provide answers that may speak to your concerns.

Topics such as spiritual development, meditation and renunciation are also touched upon, together with parental issues and topics related to bringing up children.

If you are looking for a self-help book which isnt too heavy in content and yet manages to help find answer for important things, give this book of knowledge a try. You might just come home to yourself by the end of it.

Go here to read the rest:

Book Review: Nuggets of wisdom - Yahoo India News

1 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18 & SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19: Just in time for Halloween, the Theatre Group of Millis will perform Ken Ludwigs Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes mystery/comedy.

Performance dates are Friday, Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 19 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

The worlds most famous detective and his trusty sidekick Watson face down their most notorious case of all in this madcap retelling of the ultimate Victorian whodunit from the mastermind of mayhem, Ken Ludwig.

A stunningly nimble cast of five takes on nearly 40 characters, coming on and off stage almost as quickly as the twists and turns of this complex plot, as Holmes and Watson race against time to crack the mystery of The Hound of the Baskervilles before a family curse dooms its newest heir.

The intrepid investigators search for the (anything but) elementary truth comes complete with a dizzying web of clues, outlandish accents, disguises and deceit. Does a wild hellhound prowl the moors of Devonshire? Can these heroes discover the truth in time? Can costume changes really be that fast?

Baskerville performs at Millis High School theater, 245 Plain St., Millis. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for seniors andstudents. Tickets may be purchased online at http://www.millistheatre.org or at the door.

2 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19: Internationally acclaimed vocal ensemble Windborne will perform at the Circle of Friends Coffeehouse, 262 Chestnut St., Franklin.

Windborne is a group of vocal chameleons who specialize in close harmony singing, shifting effortlessly between drastically different styles of traditional music within the same concert. Their musical knowledge spans many continents and cultures, but they remain deeply rooted in American folk singing traditions. Their singing is a feast of a cappella harmony.

Read more about Windborne at http://www.windbornesingers.com/

Singer-songwriter Michele Kelly will open the show.

The Circle of Friends Coffeehouse is a non-profit organization affiliated with Franklin's First Universalist Society. Concerts are presented in a smoke- and alcohol-free environment at the Society's handicapped accessible Meetinghouse. Beverages and gourmet desserts will be available.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the concert begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20. For tickets and more information, visit http://www.circlefolk.org/

3 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20: The Medway Elementary PTO (MEPTO) is holding its pumpkin fair, 12-4 p.m., at Medway Middle School, 145 Holliston St., Medway. There will be pumpkin painting, bounce houses, games for kids, vendor tables, sand art, and more.

This event will be held in conjunction with Medway Youth Soccer Day and Medway Parks and Recreation will be there with a pumpkin decorating contest, 1-3 p.m. To register, visit http://www.MedwayParksRec.com.

Also coming up, on Oct. 29, is Trunk or Treat with Medway Parks and Recreation at Oakland Park, 1-3 p.m. Visit http://www.MedwayParksRec.com for more details.

4 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20: The Franklin Performing Arts Company (FPAC) will present Roald Dahls Matilda the Musical choreographed by original Broadway cast member Clay Thomson and starring Broadways Sam Zeller as Trunchbull, 7 p.m., at THE BLACK BOX, 15 W. Central St., Franklin.

Inspired by the twisted genius of Roald Dahl, the Tony Award-winning Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical is the captivating masterpiece from the Royal Shakespeare Company that revels in the anarchy of childhood, the power of imagination, and the inspiring story of a girl who dreams of a better life. With book by Dennis Kelly and original songs by Tim Minchin, Matilda has won 47 international awards and continues to thrill sold-out audiences of all ages around the world.

The production stars Franklins Aida Ryan DiChiara in the title role. Aida is a fifth grader at Oak Street Elementary, who studies singing, acting, and dancing at the Franklin School for the Performing Arts.

For tickets ($34) and more information, visit http://www.FPAConline.com or call 508-528-3370.

5 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26: The Baba Siri Chand Yoga and Retreat Center at the Guru Ram Das Ashram, 368 Village St., Millis, will hold its annual Fall Yoga Festival, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

This year will be an excellent opportunity for beginning yogis to give Kundalini Yoga a try. It will feature lifelong yoga therapist and healer Dr. Shanti Shanti Kaur Khalsa, who is the founding director of the Guru Ram Das Center for Medicine & Humanology in Espanola, New Mexico. Shanti Shanti Kaurs yoga classes uplift and energize every person present, whether it is their first yoga class ever, or next in a seasoned practice.

The festival will also feature two musical guests.

Spirit Voyage recording artist Sirgun Kaur is a sacred songstress and spiritual coach who helps sensitive people focus their thoughts and become intuitive healers. She will also teach a workshop on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. called Emotions as Super Powers.

The Wolf Cry Singers, an intertribal women's hand drum group from Massachusetts, will also bless the festival will ancient healing songs from Native American traditions.

The organizers intend for all participants to feel the wisdom of Mother Earth within them.

The day will be complete with a global bazaar, delicious food court, and healing arts. To learn more and register visit the Baba Siri Chand Yoga Center & Retreat Center website at http://www.yogaattheashram.org/annual-kundalini-yoga-fall-festival/ or call the office at 508-376-4525.

Yoga at the Ashram is a non-profit organization founded in Millis in 1970. The yoga center is committed to providing affordable yoga and meditation via daily classes, workshops, and retreats in yoga, meditation, healing and humanology. It also offers innovative educational practices & programs, including world-class trainings, courses, workshops, and healing modalities, supported with Ayurvedic-inspired nutrition. It is located in the spiritually uplifting environment of the yoga centers host, Guru Ram Das Ashram, a place of peaceful meditation for over 45 years.

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5 Things To Do - Wicked Local Bellingham

Gandhi has said very little about poetry, though he had deep spiritual links with the Bhakti and Sufi poets.

By K Satchidanandan

Gandhi has called himself an artist of non-violence. That makes it easy for artists, including poets who are artists of the word, to connect with the great man and his lasting legacy. Gandhi has said very little about poetry, though he had deep spiritual links with the Bhakti and Sufi poets and had carefully and critically read Gita, if we consider that an example of Indias poetry which is, at times, nothing but philosophy in verse. But his very life was like that of poetry, ever- seeking, ever-evolving, profoundly conscious of the power of words to establish connections among apparently distant and even contradictory things, employing suggestive symbols picked up from the kitchen and the work place, creating new meanings out of paradoxes and retreating into suggestive silence when words seemed to fail.

One day a lean poem/ reached Gandhis ashram/ to have a glimpse of the man.

Gandhi spinning away/ his thread towards Ram/ took no notice of the poem/ waiting at his door/ ashamed as he was no bhajan. The poem cleared his throat/ and Gandhi looked at him sideways/ through those glasses/ that had seen Hell. Have you ever spun thread? he asked,/

Ever pulled a scavengers cart?/ Ever stood the smoke/ of an early morning kitchen?/ Have you ever starved?

The poem said: I was born/ in the woods, in a hunters mouth.

A fisherman brought me up in his hamlet. Yet, I know no work, I only sing.

First I sang in the courts/ then I was plump and handsome;/ but am on the streets now, half-starved.

Thats better, Gandhi said/ with a sly smile, but you must/ give up this habit/of speaking in Sanskrit at times.

Go to the fields, listen to/ the peasants speech.

The poem turned into a grain/ and lay waiting in the fields/ for the tiller to come and upturn the virgin soil/ moist with the new rain.

Gandhi and the Tree Gandhi was walking in the sun/ that had survived Noakhali. Come, have some rest. Gandhi turned back:/ It was a shady tree. You? It is not yet time/ for me to rest, replied Gandhi.

The tree complained: The world/ is in a hurry. I have grown old;/ no more do I flower nor bear fruit: / even birds have abandoned me.Dont worry, Gandhi said,/ You are waiting for the axe/ and I, for the bullet.

Dont say that, the tree was in agony,/ Someone will need that shade. The memory of spring escaped/ the tree as a sigh. Pray, said Gandhi. If you dont stop, I/ will have to walk with you,/ the tree now began to walk with Gandhi.

A wind blew. A bird/ flew to the tree. See, I am in bloom again/ the tree laughed with white flowers. You have started walking? Then/ I can cease, Gandhis blood/ whispered as it gushed out,/ like a prayer for every being. See, my flowers are growing red, cried out/ the emancipated tree.

Three birds that had/ dreamt of fruits came flying from the East.

Ninety years ago,/ we extracted from the sweat of/ the oceans ceaseless waves, a handful of salt:/ a blossom of tender white in a lean raised hand.

One hand suddenly turned into/ six thousand manacled ones:/ millions of fists raised against/ an empire where the sun never set.From that day truth in our land/ came to be called imprisoned salt.

Ram, Allah, Khuda, Messiah,/ that salt was everything to us:/ the prophetess who emerged from/ the seafoam and arrived in the kitchen,/ the white-winged angel, the eternal saviour of our dreams.

A handful of liberty,/ a handful of equality, a handful of love,/ a handful of kindness, a Buddha of salt. Today once again we raise/ a flag of white salt/ in the background of/ the oceans dark turquoise blue:/ the fleeting vision of dark-haired freedom/ slipping off from our little hands,/ the snowy elaboration of fair equality/ that we still keen our ears for,/ a calloused hand with the scent of sweat our flesh and tears have,/ a handful of the dark-edged salt of justice/ studded with the sand grains of rebellion/ that Gandhi had raised in Dandi/ ninety years ago.

(Satchidanandan is a poet and bilingual literary critic. Translated from Malayalam by the author)

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Gained in Translation: Gandhi, the eternal poet - The Indian Express

Dear Editor,

The emergency crew at Guyana Power and Light (GPL) in Region 6 is very unethical, inefficient and disrespectful. The persons who answer the emergency number 333 2186 appear to be working in isolation. Repeated calls were made to them about frequent explosions and fire whenever a tree in my yard comes into contact with GPLs main electrical wires. We have made several requests to have the tree removed but the employees of GPL are unresponsive.

On September 10, 2019 around 00:50 hours, there was a loud explosion and a big blaze. Shortly after, two of GPLs main electrical wires cut and there was fire on the street in front of my gate. GTT power lines were damaged and contact with GPL was made via cell calls, in order for them to disconnect the power.

On September 10, the GPL crew repaired the wires, ignored the threat and restored the power.

On September 22, a message was sent to GPLs Facebook page which is active. There was only an automated response.

Repeated calls were made to the company to have the tree removed but to no avail A Mr. Williams visited with a GPL vehicle, accompanied by two others, on Saturday, September 28 around 17:00 hours and claimed that GPL could not do anything about the tree.

Subsequently, the Public Utilities Commission was contacted on October 8, 2019.

On October 14 around 18:45 hours, there was a loud explosion and a big blaze again, and there was fire in my yard. Then, there was a power outage. When contact was made at 333 2186, the person who answered asserted that they were aware of the problem, there was a power outage and the crew was on its way.

Three persons came with a GPL vehicle and they witnessed the fire in my yard. While talking to us, the power was restored, followed by another loud explosion and blaze. The three men abandoned the GPL vehicle and dashed to the main road. There was a power outage again.

A few minutes later, the GPL emergency/ response crew went back to the GPL vehicle and drove away.

Calls were made to the emergency number to inform them about the dangerous situation. In spite of the calls, GPL restored the power that night. As a result of the frequent fires, the main wires are now brittle.

On Wednesday, October 16, 2019, a Mr Ashram visited with a GPL crew, in a GPL vehicle, to inform us that they will be there on October 17th to remove the tree. He left a contact number. Several calls were made to him on October 17th but to no avail. The employee who answered the emergency number yesterday afternoon (October 17th) appears to be working in isolation. She claimed that she had no idea about the situation and we should contact Ashram, the GPL employee.

The employees of Guyana Power and Light in Region 6, especially those who manage the Emergency Section, need to be proactive. Their efficiency and lack of ethics must not be tolerated. They must not continue to endanger the lives of citizens.

Yours faithfully,

Salome Hooper

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GPL in Region Six has not addressed this fire threat in my yard despite frequent calls - Stabroek News

Elizabeth Warren is a career hustler who has tried on many personas: lawyer, writer of dopey self-help books (The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan), Lou Dobbs-style economic populist, consumer activist and, infamously, she spent part of her academic career pretending to be a Cherokee, making the milky Oklahoman quite possibly the palest person ever to be passed off to Harvard Law as a woman of color.

In an era of sensibilities so exquisitely refined that a clumsily deployed pronoun will have progressives pointing and shrieking like Donald Sutherland at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Warren gets a pass on the intellectual equivalent of wearing blackface for decades. Why?

For one thing, shes a rich white woman in a party run by rich white women. That cant hurt.

Progressives are not especially eager to engage in an uncomfortable discussion about the intersection between identity politics and privilege vis--vis rich white liberals like Warren or progressive darling Robert Francis ORourke, the Anglo scion of a powerful Texas political family who affects a Hispanic nickname that resonates helpfully in El Paso. Progressives will forgive a great deal if you have the right politics: Bill Clinton was the Harvey Weinstein of US presidents, but Democrats protected him.

Warrens stitched-up identity is a little raggedy around the edges the Cherokee fakery, the false story about losing a teaching job to sexist discrimination against pregnant women but she isnt the only one in the Democratic field with loose threads that might be tugged at. If Warren isnt getting called out on her identity-fudging, it may be because there isnt anybody in the Democratic field comfortable pointing the finger.

The affirmative-action programs that were designed to benefit the oppressed descendants of American slaves have disproportionately benefited relatively well-off people. The greatest beneficiaries by far have been college-educated women such as Warren. The Democratic Party presents itself as the champion of the poor, the black and the brown, but institutionally it is dominated by rich white women such as Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein. Its policies and priorities reflect that.

You might think that an actual woman of color in the Democratic presidential race would say something about Warrens shenanigans. But these identity questions get complicated. The people of color who are most prominent among contemporary Democrats are figures such as Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan economist and a white hippie from Wichita, and Kamala Harris, the daughter of an Indian cancer researcher and a Jamaican economics professor at Stanford. Harris leans pretty heavily on identity politics Kamala Harris is campaigning like she knows Black History Month is coming up, Aaron Ross Coleman wrote in The Nation but her life and her story are in many ways disconnected from those of the African Americans for whom she offers up herself as a tribune. She may not be entirely comfortable poking Warren on authenticity, whatever that word might actually mean in the context of something as comprehensively phony as a Democratic presidential primary.

The left wants to like Warren. Shes a respectable version of Bernie Sanders no less vicious, but presentable and Democrats seem to believe that she has a good chance of beating Donald Trump. Trump loves teasing Warren about her Cherokee nonsense, and no Democrat wants to echo President Trump even when hes right. So theyll pretend not to notice as Warren quietly deletes an old tweet about the DNA test that she once offered as evidence of her Cherokee ancestry, as she just has.

Sanders doesnt have the heart to go after Warrens fabrications. Harris apparently wont do it. Poco ORourke isnt up to the task. Native Americans are an important constituency, but apparently there is no one in the Democratic Party willing to take a stand on the insult that Elizabeth Warren has offered them.

Kevin D. Williamson is the author of The Smallest Minority: Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics, out now.

Continue reading here:
Dems are giving Elizabeth Warren a pass on her Native American insult - New York Post

I have spent a lot of time writing about self-care and mental health as a caregiver. Even if the term self-care sounds silly to you, I recommend dedicating time every day to your mental health. If for no other reason than to help prevent caregiver burnout.

Another reason to incorporate self-care into your routine, especially if your loved one is hospitalized, is so that you also have enough energy to support their mental health.

As someone who has never had a chronic illness, I cant know what kind of strain it puts on your mind. However, I have seen chronic and terminal illness up close in several family members in recent years. I also have had a severe injury that turned my world upside down and took away my independence and mobility. I can empathize with the mental strain of an unwell, uncooperative body.

Its no surprise that failing lungs come with a huge emotional cost. I watched my mom go through loss after loss when she was sick with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Her independence, her mobility, and nearly everything normal about her life were taken away.

When she was hospitalized in January, it was a shock. We had been in Hawaii a month earlier, snorkeling and walking in the rainforest. We had just started planning my wedding reception. The drastic change in her health didnt seem possible.

Amid fighting for every breath and being at the will of more than a dozen doctors, my mom finally had to rumble with the potential outcomes of this disease. We all did. But she alone was battling to stay alive, which meant the rest of us had to help save her in any way we could.

Self-care did not eradicate my stress or negative feelings. But it did allow me to have an emotional well from which I could pull strength and love to give to my mom. Perhaps my ways of supporting my loved one will spark ideas if you are supporting someone with a chronic illness.

This was especially important when my mom was in the ICU and was being touched by many people in invasive or painful ways.

I gave her foot rubs, which helped her relax and relieved the swelling in her feet. They became a kind of nightly ritual. We would talk I read her lips since she had a trach or enjoy the quiet of a rare moment without an alarm going off.

I gave her a manicure and pedicure. My moms nails were another reminder of her failing lungs. She had clubbing, and the nail beds looked too pale without enough oxygen. I bought the brightest, most obnoxious shade of pink I could find. It was called punk rock pink. I wanted something that would brighten up the room. The neon shade was a hit with the nurses!

Some of our goals were things she could achieve in the hospital, such as:

We also talked about the little things we looked forward to doing after her transplant. Talking as if the transplant was a certainty was both dangerous and necessary. We needed to believe that she would have a successful transplant. Those things gave us a future to fight for in harder moments. Im going to get out and drink a lemonade! was a little one. A bigger goal was to go wedding dress shopping.

There is a lot you can do in the hospital to pass the time. When my mom had the energy, we played scrabble, colored pages from a flower coloring book, or she read. My aunt Shari brought collage supplies and they made cards.

Aside from being fun, art projects and coloring pages can be used to decorate the room. Artwork was taped almost floor to ceiling in my moms room by the time she had her transplant.

Doing things with my mom kept her spirits up and her mind active. She maintained a positive attitude throughout her three months in the ICU and one month in a cardiac unit after transplant.

And there are many sweet memories mixed in with the painful ones.

***

Note: Pulmonary Fibrosis News is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Pulmonary Fibrosis News or its parent company, BioNews Services, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to pulmonary fibrosis.

Read the original here:
Taking Care of Yourself and Your Loved One - Pulmonary Fibrosis News

Photo courtesy of Audible.

In order to talk about 2019 Cat Marnell, one needs to understand the past iterations of Cat Marnell.

Theres 2012 Cat, who snorted bath salts to avoid writing a story for the now-defunct XoJane.com, where she was a popular and controversial beauty director. She was known for incorporating her party lifestyle (as documented in her Vice column Amphetamine Logic) into her health and beauty coverage. Theres 2013 Cat, who signed an impressive six-figure book deal to tell her one-of-a-kind story about being a blonde media darling with an out-of-control drug habit (her description). Before that, there was Cat the Intern at Nylon, Teen Vogue, and Glamour. By 2017, Cat Marnell had become a New York Times best-selling author.

And then her life fell apart again.

Marnell embraces all these past versions of herself each with her own demons in her new Audible original, Self-Tanner for the Soul: How I Ran Away to Europe and Found My Inner Glow (When Life Got Dark), out now.

Im an idiot, Marnell says almost immediately when I call her to talk about the audiobook part travel diary, part self-help, and entirely her signature rambles. Its an unexpected follow-up to her hilarious and intense memoir, which she refers to as Murder (the aforementioned NYT best-seller How to Murder Your Life). She goes between calling herself an idiot and crazy, frequently during our conversation, as if shes trying to beat everyone else to the punch. At 37, Marnell has had years of practice being self-deprecating, but she also has some life lessons worth sharing. Some are simple (dont bring a suitcase full of just wigs and shoes for a backpacking trip across Europe), while others are profound (be a fountain, not a drain of your own happiness).

Told over the course of five chapters, Marnells new project documents her summer in Europe following a complete and total mental breakdown after the release of Murder. She flooded, and totally ruined, her Chinatown apartment in an event she described as a beauty Chernobyl. Left with scars, burns, and practically no hair (Marnell never specifically describes what happened in that apartment, but still sticks to wigs), she escapes to Europe to solve her problems. And it kind of works. For over 100 days, Marnell travels solo from Croatia to Germany to England to Romania to Italy to Poland and beyond. Shes following her favorite artist Pete Doherty (she even once followed his path all the way to a fancy rehab facility in Thailand), and indulging in heavy pours of white wine while avoiding real life a graffiti artist ex-boyfriend, her agent, sobriety, responsibility. The result is an immersive storytelling experience full of Adderall, loneliness, and something Marnell calls wizard walks, narrated by one of the most polarizing and recognizable writers born of the Internet.

But that was more than two years ago. 2019 Cat is good. Shes back in New York staying in an Airbnb (temporarily), and she says shes weaned herself off Adderall. She says shes not sober, but shes trying to get shit done. She has bills to pay and stories to tell.

Refinery29: Where are you right now?

Cat Marnell: I am on a stoop on North 5th St. in Williamsburg, looking at a bulldozer.

How long have you been back in New York?

Ive been back, on-and-off, all month. It is very annoying because it is Airbnb for me now, which is very hard to do in New York. Once you travel in Europe, youre like, Its no wonder that people dont come here. When youre overseas you find that people dont come to New York. They all want to, but they cant fucking afford it.

Who approached whom for this collaboration?

I met with Audible the spring after How To Murder Your Life came out. It was the one meeting I took as I was actually having a complete fucking mental breakdown and snapping. I showed up at the bar with a rainbow wig, and I met with this guy Andrew (Eisenman) from Audible shout him out! Love him and I found out that Audible, which I didnt know that much about because I was writing my book and also in a drug haze, wanted original content from published authors. I thought it was pretty modern. What I originally thought of when my agent sent through that request, because I usually just say no to everything how sad is that? was Howard Stern working with satellite [radio]. I know it is completely different, but I really admire Howard Stern. I just liked the idea of doing something new. I just wanted to switch it up.

One of the ideas that we settled on was self-help. Like I said I was going through a bad time, and I just wanted to ditch New York. I bought The Andy Cohen Diaries on the way at the airport, [and] I read it on the plane over there and was enjoying it so much I was like, Okay Im going to keep a diary and see if I can sell it. And then I did. I actually sold it to Audible while I was in Europe.

Im sure you had enough within just two weeks for them to publish.

Oh yeah, I always do more than I have to. Im an idiot. Like when my book was turned in, it was way longer than they wanted. I turned in, initially, 800 pages. They cut it down to 300. I basically wrote two books. Im an idiot.

Did this make you look at your voice in a different way? Have you listened to it?

Because Im so tired all the time, it was definitely a flattened version of me, but thats fine...I felt like this kept it very real, because I was exhausted. Because I wrote it on the train [while traveling], it kept me going. I am someone who gets depressed and gets nostalgic. I was in bed my whole fucking 20s, you know what I mean? I would give myself 20 minutes of staring out the window [of a train], and then I would pull out the computer. Thats when I would write. I was always fucking exhausted when I was writing it, but it was real.

"I just didnt want the book to be all about drugs. Getting off of that stuff has made me so much happier."

- Cat marnell

How did you gather your source material?

I just love diaries. I just want to keep writing diaries. Id rather read that than anything from other people right now. Its just more real. Our guess our brains have changed, and we cant read elevated stuff. Or maybe thats just me.

Do you consider yourself an influencer at all?

Im a bad influencer. Im proud to say. Whether Im sorting bath salts or escaping, whenever I hear the word influencer, I think bad influencer, you know? I never worried about recommending PCP to anyone because I always knew they wouldnt know where to find it! I only knew where to find it because I was a fucking scumbag. I do not have the hustle to [be an influencer]. That is the worst thing about my life. I look at them, and they get their hotel rooms [for free]. I always intend to do that, and do, like, an initial email. Even getting the free train ticket to EuroRail, I sent an initial email, and then I never followed up. Its just not me! I always just pay for it. I would be in the worst place if it meant I didnt have to talk to anyone.

How would you describe your travel style?

I guess, in a negative way, I am an adult child. That is what responsible people would say about me. Other people would be like Oh, shes so free! But I dont need anything. Honestly, sometimes, if there was a safe place to sleep on the street, I would do it.

What are wizard walks?

First of all, I used to take a lot of speed. You dont need that for a wizard walk, though. The whole wizard thing is played out now, but think of a carnival, or a fairground. During the day, it looks like nothing. That is how I am during the day. That is how my brain is during the day. Right now, I look like shit. Im wearing sweatpants and I look sad, just sprawled onto these steps. That is my brain during the day.

But the way carnival rides look lit up at night, my brain is the carnival. [Its] so glowy and awesome at night. That is the wizard thing. Ive always connected with cities at night, the glittering night lights. I look better at night, I feel better at night, and so I take these night walks.

Photo Credit: Cat Marnell.

You can go to the best cities in Europe, and then everything at night is completely empty and its all lit and glowy and enchanting. Nothing is enchanting during the day its just not. Its sunny, and its pretty, but enchantment is only at night. Even a string of fucking Canal St. bulbs just strung up, or LED lights thats my speed. In Europe, everything is a fucking castle well technically its a fortress, but in your American brain youre like, Thats a castle!. Its all glowing in the distance, and you put on electronic music and just wander over there. Its awesome. Im crazy, though, Im crazy. You get the energy. It charges your brain for real. Night walks are my thing.

Is How To Murder Your Life still being adapted into a TV series?

Its going to be a limited series with Sony TriStar. I can tell you that it will have the showrunner Esta Spalding, who is the showrunner for the Kristen Dunst God thing [On Becoming a God in Central Florida]. My co-writer is Jessica Caldwell, who has worked on Billions. I love them. I am very excited. I am involved, not because I want to make it accurate about me, but because I want to want it awesome. I want to elevate it. We are creating a fictional world, but I want to come at it from a place of humor and energy some crackling different stuff. Im not a big TV person. I dont watch any TV. I dont have the patience for it because I find it all to be quite hackneyed and clich. The second something is played out Im like, No, I cant watch this. I have cities to walk around in!

A piece about your finances went viral earlier this year. Do you feel like youre in a better place financially now?

Not at all, actually. I backslid. I dont have any money coming in anymore! Well, I do. But the TV show money is so far away. I need to sell a book. Thats what I am going to do. Next month. Im going to fucking Europe again. Its cheaper! All I do in New York is go to the fucking Buffalo Exchange to buy shit I dont need.

Tax extensions are due. Im just piling up fines again. When youve been in tax debt hundreds of thousands of dollars, like I used to be, being in debt $20,000 doesnt feel like anything. Try telling my mom that. Even my storage unit I owe them like $800, and I cant get in. I dont have any of my dresses. I dont have any of my shoes. I cant get in. I am miserable.

Are you still wearing wigs?

Of course, I have to. I cant even get into that. I am trying to get some sort of wig sponsorship, but Im not sure that is going to happen. I wear bad ones, too...I dont know how to do anything. I can barely keep up with my email. I cant hustle for anything. I wind up paying for everything. Its annoying.

I am trying to get some sort of wig sponsorship, but Im not sure that is going to happen.

-Cat Marnell

A person whos been in the news a lot recently has talked about how much she looks up to you...

Are you talking about Caroline Calloway? C.C.? Good for her, I hope she flourishes and thrives. I DM with her all the time, and I definitely feel protective of her, as someone who can understand what she is going through in a unique way. The advice I gave her was just to work out through all of this. I said, Caroline, work out. Even if it is just half an hour a day. It is going to keep this entire experience that much more clear for you. That exercise is going to affect the other 23-and-a-half hours in the day in a good way.

I only have two pieces of advice for anyone, ever: travel and work-out. I really do think for her, you have got to snap out of it sometimes. But its intoxicating when it first happens. Hopefully, she seems to be monetizing everything. Its harder than you think to monetize.

People want to hear from you, and her, all the time. They also want to judge.

Everyone hates Kim Kardashian well, I guess they dont anymore but being polarizing has made all these peoples careers. Its annoying that Caroline will try to charge money for things, and people will attack her for that. I really dont see how that is scamming. And also the vitriol. People are negatively obsessed with her. Howard Stern has the same thing where people are obsessed with hate-listening to him, and its almost like hate-fucking. Hopefully she can just make that into something, and I think she will. I like that she is just obsessively creative, because yeah, people are fucking disorganized. Disorganized creative people are a thing.

After this experience, do you have any new cures for loneliness?

Oh, God. Well, you know, I am off Adderall now. Im not sober or anything...But on that trip, I took my supply and just took less and less and less and less, so I was down to crumbs by the end. I just didnt want the book to be all about drugs. Getting off of that stuff has made me so much happier. I dont know why I just bought up drugs

Because going off was your cure for loneliness?

Theres no cure. I am actually lonely all the time, but I realize that is not going to change. It doesnt matter if I become a quote-unquote famous person or anything. If anything, fame has made me more self-protective and weird and withdrawn. I am trying to meet up with people more. Like someone hit me up last time when I was in London, inviting me to dinner. Usually I dont do that stuff, but it turned out being amazing. I made these new friends in London, and I feel like my whole life over there opened up. Now I can actually move there and know people.

People need to be brave. Human connection does not come naturally to me. It has nothing to do with social media this came before all that shit. It just doesnt come naturally to me. I was always surrounded by people like my graffiti writing friends who protected me from the real world. When I was in Europe, I didnt have anyone. You learn to stand on your own. But you have to make an effort. I sound like my dad. [Laughs]

Check out this clip from Self-Tanner for the Soul, below.

Interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

If you are struggling with substance abuse, please call theSAMHSA National Helplineat 1-800-662-4357 for free and confidential information.

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Cat Marnell: New Book & How To Murder Your Life Show

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Cat Marnell Is Lonely All The Time, But Still Has A Lot To Say - Refinery29