Prominence

Some strive to keep it, while others fear they are losing it.

Prominence is the state of being important or famous.

Julia Roberts, born to a Baptist and Catholic couple in the Bible Belt of the US, secretly converted to Hinduism during the late fall of 2009. She was in India during the shoot of ‘Eat Pray Love’, a biopic based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir of one woman’s quest to find lasting peace.

Elizabeth and Julia were attracted to the values of Hinduism, those that formed the cornerstone of my Hindu upbringing. Was it a PR gimmick to promote her movie? Maybe at the time it served both needs, but since then, it has been reported that the ‘Pretty Woman’ actor continues to be a devout and practicing Hindu.

Living in The Middle East under autocratic restrictions, my expatriate parents would frequently quote the teachings from the Bhagavad Gita and the tales from the Mahabharata as a way of instilling goodness in us. The lessons always centered around living in peace and harmony in a land that was stranger and stricter than where we h…