Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interview Ms. Jayanti Tamm, author of Cartwheels in a Sari: A Memoir of Growing Up Cult published by Harmony.
From the time of her birth, Jayanti Tamm, was declared the chosen disciple in the cult of Guru Sri Chinmoy. Jayanti
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lived inside the confines of the Guruâs inner circle, shuttling between her familyâs home, Sri Chinmoyâs Connecticut headquarters, and his ashram in Queens, New York. Sri Chinmoy assigned Jayanti to court celebrities, infiltrate the United Nations, and find elephants for him to weight lift, all in an effort to transform the world. At the age of twenty-five, after multiple attempts to leave, she was permanently exiled from the group.
After graduating Magna Cum Laude from Queens College, she worked as an editor for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. She received her MFA in Creative Writing at American University in Washington, DC, where she studied fiction and playwriting. Following graduation, she had a number of stories published in literary journals in North America. In 2000, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. In 2005, her one-act play, The Suicide Bomber won the New England Academy of Theatre One Act Play Award. Jayanti is currently an English Professor at Ocean County College where she teaches writing.
She lives in New Jersey with her husband, daughter, and two cats where she is working on a novel. Visit her website.
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