I asked to come to the kumbh mela this year. I asked that it be easy, that the plans would be stress free, and that I would be taken care of. Within days I was invited to join a group of friends from Bali. Gratitude. Within weeks, they had all bailed on me! So I contacted the mutual friend here in India, who had been hooking us up, and asked if I could tag along anyway. She said yes. Gratitude!

Shilo is a professional artist, a rising art star – young, talented, spirited and sexy! She designed Khoya, an iPad app as a university project, which led to a TED talk! The girl is on fire. So here I am in Varanasi (Benares, Kashi) with her and her equally lovely and smart partner – another mover and shaker – Avijit Michael, director of Change.org India, before we head to the kumbh.

Shilo has been painting a wall here at Assi Ghat, a mural of a goddess – part of her Fearless campaign (in response to ‘the Delhi rape’), it turns out this piece of wall is owned/rented by a woman’s empowerment group. Srsly – perfection. Fearless is making news in India: ARTINFO; Express India ; The New Indian Express .

Also, of course, Shilo is involved in One Billion Rising, on Valentine’s day, February 14th. Women rising in dance together – I’m sure many more than 1 billion will dance. It moves me greatly.

She is ‘an artist’ – she travels with fairy lights and creative accessories And while we’ve been here, Shilo has been filmed for a documentary about inspiring Indian women (team photo below). Thank you Shilo and Avijit – you are both delicious inspirations! xo