humansofnewyork:“Everyone living downtown is the black sheep of their family. And I’m no different.
humansofnewyork:“Everyone living downtown is the black sheep of their family. And I’m no different. I come from a family full of ministers. Bible banging, born-again, evangelical hit men. Let’s just say my grandfathers were largely responsible for the proliferation of Christianity in India. But I was a New York club kid. I’d stay out all night, and skip church in the morning. My old man wasn’t having it. He threatened to kick me out when I turned seventeen, so I had to negotiate my own survival. It was either homelessness or seminary. I chose Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I actually liked it at first. I felt a deep connection to the earth. That’s prairie land out there. It’s wagon culture. Miracle makers. Everyone was so nice and dreamy, man. I thought: ‘I could get into this.’ But you weren’t even allowed to dance at that school. And in 1991, the Dallas electronic scene was really starting to spill over into Tulsa. So one night I’m at a warehouse party, and I feel my body being altered by the music, it’s changing my mood, and my thoughts, and I realize that everyone around me is feeling the same thing. In that moment we were all connected. And suddenly I felt The Calling. I was called to understand the biochemical functions underlying such transcendence. So I dropped out of seminary and went to pharmacy college in Brooklyn.” -- source link