he Best of Speaking Tree presents a selection of articles from the column, The Speaking Tree, that appears daily on the edit page of The Times of India. Ever since the column began in 1995, its open, non-denomi national approach to spirituali ty has been widely read and appreciated. Indeed, for many TOI readers, The Speaking Tree has grown to become a place of retreat and contempla tion amidst the death, deceit and destruction that populates the rest of the newspaper. Articles in this column are essentially timeless, and can be read anytime, anywhere, since they talk of issues and ideas that evoke our higher consciousness and so are eternal.