PROFILE
ALISTAIR SHEARER was born in Edinburgh and educated at Fettes and Cambridge, where he read English Literature. He later received an MA in Sanskrit and Indian studies from the University of Lancaster.

Alistair has been leading tours to India regularly since 1980. He has been specially invited to lead travel groups from such institutions as the Royal Academy of Arts, the Tate Gallery and the National Art Gallery of Ontario, and has lectured on Oriental art for The School of Oriental and African Art [SOAS] at London University, the British Museum, the auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's, the Prince of Wales' Institute of Architecture and numerous art schools around the country. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Asiatic Society.

Alistair's interest in Indian culture has never been just academic. A teacher of meditation, he sees the appreciation of great art and architecture as a means to enliven and expand consciousness. As he says:

"Many tourists are motivated by a genuine and deep-felt need to expand their horizons, especially those who choose to go to a country like India. But most of them, having travelled so many miles and spent so much money, have no key to understand the real meaning and significance of what they see.

Conventional explanations tend to regard Indian sites as products of a totally alien culture, remote from ourselves. In fact, although unfamiliar, these places also resonate with myths, symbols and teachings which are eternal and universal. All it needs is the right angle of perspective to unfold their mysteries."

TRISHULA TRAVEL was set up in 1989 to provide this 'right angle'.