Half-heard/half-seen (1): Om Ianks talks to Aga magazine.

Om Ianks ("It's pronounced 'Yannax'", he adds with a twinkle in his
eye) readjusts his poncho and offers me another yak's milk cookie. His
dojo is a light, airy room; serenity oozes from the wood panelling -
where it isn't obscured by enamelled pasty adverts. Om gives a genteel
belch. "Just as the kitchen is the centre of the home, the Aga is the
centre of the kitchen. Therefore, to feel as centred as possible, all
the acolytes who visit our retreats are encouraged to spend time at the
Aga. As meditative practice, we seek the perfect shortcrust pastry."

Pastry?

"It's like life - the search for ingredients, the travelling and
exploration of the external... then the moving inwards, the alchemy of
creation, the combination of the external and the creative spirit to
perfect the internal and complete the circle. Here, we communicate that
by the creation of pie." His eyes twinkle. "Our Agas are fundamental to
our way of life."



Om has Agas to thank for some of the most meaningful moments in his
life. When he started out as a freelance sculptural welder, travelling
through the artist colonies of the Yorkshire Dales, he never intended
to become a modern guru. "My life then was simple," he muses. "I'd get
up, reconcile modernism and sculptural demonstratism, negotiate a
price, then get out the welding kit and bash on. But it was all so
shallow. I was all steel sheet - I lacked ballast. Now I've added some
cast iron to my life - and I'm trying to bring that lesson to as many
people as I can get 'old of." He shifts gently - I must admit,
two hours in a position he calls 'the Durham Lotus' are starting
to take their toll on my elbows.



It may seem a revolutionary concept - the shortcrust path to
enlightenment - but in fact it has a noble tradition. Or would, if I
could be bothered to think of one. But I can't. And I'll bet this is
still a more interesting article than the one in Saga magazine about
Tom Hanks, which momentarily confused me in the hospital waiting room
this afternoon.