India, Sept. 12 -- On a warm afternoon in Baku, Azerbaijan - thousands of kilometres from India - I stood before a weathered stone wall at an old temple site, staring at two inscriptions that felt strangely familiar. The first, in Devanagari, invoked Lord Ganesha, Chamunda Devi, and - to my amazement - Shri Jwala Ji! For those unfamiliar, Jwala Ji is one of the most sacred Shaktipeeths in India - a temple of eternal flames that burn without fuel or wick - located in the serene hills of Himachal Pradesh, just a short drive from my hometown. As a child, I would visit this temple with folded hands and a quiet sense of awe. The flames represent Adi Shakti, the primordial energy - and for generations, pilgrims have come here with their wishes, their gratitude, and their prayers. To find that very name, Jwala Ji, carved into a stone wall in Baku, in a different land and a different era, gave me goosebumps. How did it get here? That's where the story of the Silk Road comes in. The Silk Road wasn't just about silk, spices, or trade. It was a living artery of ideas, languages, cultures, and faiths. From India to Central Asia, Persia, and beyond, travellers - monks, merchants, mystics - carried not just goods, but gods and stories, scriptures and chants. Temples, shrines, and rest stops emerged along these ancient routes. And with them came inscriptions like these, leaving traces of a spiritual India in the most unexpected corners of the world. The second inscription, in Gurmukhi, paid homage to Guru Gobind Singh ji, referencing seva (selfless service) and sangat (community) - foundational Sikh principles. It reaffirmed how inclusive and expansive our culture has always been, embracing both bhakti and seva, Sanskrit chants and Punjabi spirit - all walking side by side along the dusty roads of the Silk Route. At that moment, I wasn't just reading stones. I was reading centuries of movement, memory, and meaning. These weren't just inscriptions. They were emotional coordinates, tying my quiet hill town roots to a global, historical tapestry. If you've ever stumbled upon a piece of your culture in a foreign land, you know that feeling - a mix of wonder, pride, and a strange ache of familiarity. In a world often divided by lines on a map, these stones reminded me that our stories are shared, our faith is fluid, and our roots often run deeper than we know....