I am excited to announce that I will be suspending my travels indefinitely to live and work in India. Mai Thik Hoo is an organization I founded along with four of the loveliest of people: Frites-baba (UK), Amelie (Germany), Hitesh (India), and Rakesh (India). The purpose of Mai Thik Hoo is to study and promote the practices that make people happy. Our labs take the form of live-in environments where guests are invited to reside and participate in a daily program consisting of activities scientifically shown to improve human well-being.
Mai Thik Hoo Headquarters, Jaipur.
As Mai Thik Hoo’s Research Director, I will have the pleasure (Es muss sein! It must be so!) of investigating humanity’s scientific and cultural revelations as to happiness. I will also be working closely with Mai Thik Hoo’s directors, in particularly, Frites, our Programming Director, to design our program, which will include activities such as yoga, meditation, chanting, music, art, dance, journaling, story time (read by elderly people on rocking chairs, naturally), community service, animal care, sustainable farming, random acts of kindness hour, healthy eating, and of course power poses.
Due to the generosity of our benefactor, Rakesh, Mai Thik Hoo has been able to establish its headquarters in Jaipur, India, having taken over Bunkyard Hostel’s Jaipur branch. We will continue to run the property as a hostel — but things will not be business as usual! Mai Thik Hoo is a community organization. Therefore, we will begin to operate on a donation-based model effective immediately. Moreover, our guests are invited to participate in yoga (in addition to my research duties, I am also Mai Thik Hoo’s yoga teacher), meditation, cooking, jamming, community service, and other activities that make people feel great. In the coming months, we will expand to a larger property where we can implement our full concept of a sustainable living community practicing happiness together.
Since I have a sleeper bus to catch in half an hour, I will save the story of the elegant circumstances that brought us five founders together.
In the meantime, we’d love to have you join the discussion. What makes you happy!? What is happiness? I would love to hear your ideas! Drop us a note at info@maithikhoo.com (but don’t go to our website yet because it’s still under construction).
Now, I’m off to Ujjain for Kumbh Mela (a Hindu festival) and then to Manali for some cool weather.
Namaste,
Shalev