Karen Armstrong

The conversion experience is well-documented. Someone lives a life of doubt; maybe she's an atheist. Then, something happens. Whether gradually, over time - or suddenly, overnight - she finds belief.
For Karen Armstrong, the conversion experience went the other way. Armstrong, who spent years studying to be a nun, puts it this way: "After I left the convent, for 15 years I was worn out with religion, I wanted nothing whatever to do with it. I felt disgusted with it. If I saw someone reading a religious book on a train, I'd think, how awful."

This conversion would end up having a twist. Karen Armstrong found her way back to religion, as a scholar. The library and the study provided some of her most transcendent moments. Her latest subject is the beleaguered Bible, which she explores in a book called The Bible: A Biography, published by Atlantic Monthly Press.

Also this week - he's known simply as The Tabla Guy. Aparita Bhandari brings us a profile of Gurpreet Chana, who learned to drum on his grandparents' coffee table, even before he learned to walk.

Now Gurpreet has mastered the tabla, a classical Indian percussion instrument. Treat yourself to the sounds of the tabla, on Tapestry.