JAYANTI TAMM
Author Visit & Book Signing: MONDAY, MAY 11, 7:30 PM -- JAYANTI TAMM with CARTWHEELS IN A SARI: A MEMOIR OF GROWING UP CULT
A Just Books' Event at Arcadia Cafe
20 Arcadia Road, Old Greenwich, CT
203-637-0707 - www.justbooks.org
Free and Open to the Public
Come hear this AMAZING and TRUE story that happened right here in Connecticut and meet Jayanti Tamm as she introduces her life story Cartwheels in a Sari: A Memoir of Growing Up Cult. Cartwheels tells the story of Jayanti's life as guru Sri Chinmoy's "Chosen One." Until she was 25 (when she left the cult for good), Guru dictated every aspect of her life, from arranging her parents' marriage to selecting her soul to be born as his chosen disciple, naming her, and dictating how she spent her days and if/where she went to school. Chinmoy's ashram was in Queens and the headquarters for his movement, helmed by Jayanti's parents, was in Connecticut. In this colorful, eye-opening memoir, Tamm shares the trauma and triumphs of growing up 'cult' in mainstream America and the powerful hold of such a lifestyle. She also reveals a new side to the enigmatic personality of Chinmoy, who until his death in 2007, managed to convince thousands of his disciples and celebrities -- Princess Diana, Carlos Santana, Susan Sarandon, Richard Gere, Desmond Tutu, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela -- that he was merely a humble emissary of peace. Jayanti Tamm is a graduate of Greenwich Academy and is now an English professor at Ocean County College in New Jersey.
