Vivek & Bethany
The Creation of Sangam Retreat & The Writing Barn
Boy is born in India.
Girl is Born in Chicago.
Boy meditates.
Girl makes up stories.
Boy studies hard. Math and Science come easily.
Girl studies just as hard. History and English come easily.
Boy gets his degree and leaves his home country.
Girl gets her degree and she leaves the South, her home.
Boy is becoming a man, a young man. He meditates and studies, he dances and dreams.
Girl is becoming a woman, a young woman. She sits cross-legged in bookstores and walks down Broadway. Instead of becoming an actor, she is putting words to the page.
Young man and young woman each married young—but not to each other. Another love is yet to come.
Young man loves his toys, Tin Tin, dogs, and raising his daughter Emily, who came into his life when he was twenty-six and she nine.
Young woman loves movies, Brooklyn, and develops a taste for sushi.
Both the young man and young woman love trees. They read under them. They eat under them. They write under them but still they are worlds away.
Young man is now older—he has his PHD. He has started his own company. He owns a big piece of land with many trees in Austin, his home for many years.
Young woman is now older—she has her Master’s degree. She has published many books. She left New York City for her new home—a literary home, Austin, the Paris of YA.
After she is in Austin for a year, Man and Woman meet. They sip coffee. They smile.
He has bought her books. She signs them, though she barely knows him.
Over dinner they sip wine and something special happens. Man says, “You are looking at me like I am your home.”
Woman answers, “I am?”
She is.
Later, they sit on a porch swing and listen to the rain. The trees sway in the night breeze.
Months pass and their love builds. They talk. They share. They pray. They play.
With a barn under construction, and when the wildflowers bloom, Man, Woman, and Dog go for a walk.
Man gets down on one knee. “Will you marry me?”
The Woman cries—happy tears, sad tears—but none as deeply felt as these.
Her heart, her body, her voice all say yes.
Come spring…
The Man, Vivek Bakshi, meets the Woman, Bethany Hegedus, under two tall trees, whose roots have grown together underground, the same way they wish to be bound this day—March 21st, 2012.
Surrounded by friends, family, books, and Buddhas—the man and woman—vow to grow like trees—separate but connected, feeding from the same Source, and bending as the winds blow.
They look into each other’s eyes and leap.
