A REGAL MIND : MOIN MIR

THE CHARISMATIC AUTHOR, A SCION OF THE NAWAB FAMILY OF SURAT, DELVES INTO THE PAST TO ILLUMINATE THE FUTURE THROUGH HIS WRITING. IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH HELLO!, HE DISCUSSES HIS LATEST BOOK, EXPLORING THE TIMELESS STRUGGLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL, AND REFLECTS ON THE REAL WEALTH BESTOWED BY HIS ROYAL HERITAGE

- SONAL NERURKAR

Many featured in HELLO! magazine can claim famous ancestors, yet few trace their lineage to a Sufi saint. Guided by the spirit of his ancestor, Hazrat Modud Chishti, one of the founders of the Chishti Sufi order, author Moin Mir follows in the footsteps of another philosopher on his quest to experience “Oneness” with a Supreme Power. The two-year journey across India, Egypt, Italy, Greece and Turkey, vividly chronicled in his recent book The Monastery of Solitude: A Journey in Search of Unity, was inspired by the teachings of Plotinus, an ancient Roman philosopher.

Moin, whose previously published novel The Lost Fragrance of Infinity focused on Buddhism, found new inspiration for his philosophical writing in Plotinus. “Thanks to my wife ... I was exploring visal-e-ilahi [a state of spiritual reunion with the Divine] when Leonie introduced me to ‘henosis’ — the Greek concept of the soul merging with The One, as propagated by Plotinus,” says the London-based author, who was fascinated by the common theme of surrender across belief systems.

Plotinus’ dream was to travel to India, but he only made it as far as the banks of the Tigris river in Persia. Nearly two millennia later, Moin set out to complete his journey. “I was compelled to fulfill his dream in many ways. The fact that he never made it only made it even more alluring to me,” he says.

GOOD AND BAD, A TITANIC STRUGGLE

From listening to the azan in Egypt to discovering the book’s title on an olive farm in Italy, the descriptions of these moments are beautifully eloquent in this blend of travelogue and pop philosophy. Opting for trains, planes and taxis instead of travelling on foot like his inspiration, Moin even made a brief pit stop in India to visit the Ajmer Sharif Dargah.