My parents migrated to the U.S. from India in 1980 with very little money. I was just a little child and one of the first things my parents did to earn an income was to set up a small shop on the boardwalk at Venice Beach in Los Angeles which is where I began to taste American culture for the first time. When I lived as a monk, everyone asked me why I became a monk. Now that I'm no longer a monk people want to know why I'm no longer a monk.