An Intense Calm: Maldives Eco Surfing Chronicle

Author Bio

Thirumoolar Devar, aka “Moolar” or simply, “Moo,” was born in Manhattan, New York City. He grew up in a Tamil founded, yet multi-ethnic Kundalini yoga ashram. He learned about world religions and spirituality while traveling around the United States until age 15 when he became an independent. He worked in tourism and hospitality since early on, with a majority of U.S. years spent in New Orleans. There he became interested in the arts, playing music, and practicing photography since the young age of 7 in 1977.

After studying graphic design at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), he began his career in the publishing industry at a small-town newspaper in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Right at the digital transition, he helped them make the switch from the old paste-up process to modern computer-based production.

Returning to school to study digital video at The American Film Institute (AFI) in Hollywood, he then continued west to Maui, Hawaii. There he began his freelance operations working for the tour and activity vendors throughout the Hawaiian islands. In the year 2000, he began learning web development. Shortly after that, he traveled to his first foreign land. By 2009 he was living abroad fulltime, filling his passport with stamps from around the globe. From a remote international office, he works online, making websites and books under the name Studio With A View.

Moolar makes the analogy of his paths traversed to the juxtaposition of The Force and The Darkside from the classic movie, Star Wars. However, his favorite film is Blade Runner. When he was a young boy, he enjoyed reading the adventurous tales of Tarzan and other Edgar Rice Burroughs books. Two Herman Hesse books that influenced him in his teens were Narcissus and Goldmund and Steppenwolf. His life’s journey unfolded by diving headfirst and unabashedly into the exploration of both the internal and external pleasures and pains of existence.

In 2020 he launched his publishing company, Earth Afloat. The company’s first self-published books are a series of short stories written by his father, “Fables Found - A Treasure of Wisdom for Grandchildren.”