Welcome to the second volume of ‘Benign and Beautiful’. Since the publication of the first volume in 2019, the world has changed in many unimaginable ways due to COVID-19. The suffering, distress and loss of life caused by the pandemic continues to dominate our daily news. India, unfortunately, is at the centre of the headlines at the time of writing, with high rates of infection and mortality.

It goes without saying that the suffering and loss caused by COVID-19 have traumatised our world. Maintaining hope in such scenarios is not easy and yet it is essential. Without hope, we are defeated.

The proverbs in this book have their origins in Jaipur, India. They have been chosen as little beacons of hope and resilience for the uncertain times we are living in. And, as reminders to the reader that a life of simplicity and sharing can bring about hope and unity in our local communities.

After a chance meeting with Mr. Garg in 2014, MusicAlive, created volume 1 of the Benign and Beautiful series. For this second volume of Benign and Beautiful, a number of proverbs were selected and accompanied with photographs (by Reddy O’Regan and Richard Winfield) and translations into Irish (by Deirdre Ní Luasaigh) and Hindi (Lauren Lewthwaite, TransPerfect Translations)