Unveiling Power and Passion: Inside Sangamirtha Iyer’s Riveting Memoir of Political Currents
Adi tells his daughter of King Ashoka, a great warrior. The name Ashoka means ‘without sorrow.’ However, after witnessing the destruction of the Kalinga War, Ashoka is asked by a monk, how can he be without sorrow when he has killed so many? Whenever Adi tells Iyer this story, his eyes fill with tears. Here, Iyer acknowledges her own “kinship with sorrow” and tells the reader how ahimsa is rooted in grief and reckoning, which is exactly what Governing Bodies is rooted in.
It is Iyer’s grief over losing her father that grants her the courage to pursue her junoon (or passion) which is ethics, justice, and activism. This trickle of influence, from her Thatha to her father to herself, is how Iyer eventually winds up writing for Satya, a New York City-based monthly magazine which covers vegetarianism, animal rights, environmentalism, and social justice issues.
