An RAF Flight Lieutenant based at Walters Ash has written an eye-opening autobiography detailing her transformation by Hinduism and Islam.

Where The Streams Meet tells the true story of how Harriet Curtis-Lowe met and married an Indian man, Kranthi Tadikonda; and of how exposure to different cultures led her on a journey from ‘party girl’ to learning about, and being transformed by, Hinduism in India and Islam during her RAF service in Afghanistan.

Harriet, 32 said: “It’s our love story; we’ve been on quite a journey together. The book is an evolution, from the very first day that we met when I had no interest in him at all. He was a typical Indian and very geeky and then just something changed. The book talks about how friendship can change if you start seeing the things that are behind the friendship. Little things happened and I began to think ‘ok there’s something here actually’.

The book also tells the story of how spiritualism changed Harriet’s life for the better, going from a carefree, party girl to leading a more purposeful life.

“Everybody needs to go through a phase in life where they blow out a few cobwebs, where they are uninhibited and free and I did what everybody does, prior to growing up a bit. I think I was a bit lost in some ways.”

The book started life as a journal, but Harriet says having it published was serendipitous.

“I’d written it just as a memory for me and my husband. I had an operation and I’m not the sort of person to sit around and do nothing, so during my recovery, I typed up this journal I had been keeping. It was literally this tatty paper thing that I had tied together with string and I’d gone to the publisher of my dad’s books, not realising she was a publisher. I thought she was a distributor! On the way out the door I said to her, “I’ve got this journal, do you want to see it?” and she said “I’ll have a look but I’m not promising anything” and the next day, she offered me a contract.”

Despite being a love story, Harriet also tells how the book has a deeper meaning and a very important message.

“It has a message of tolerance. When I went out to Afghanistan, I saw that there was a lack of understanding of Islam, I didn’t understand Islam, so I enrolled on an Masters in Islamic Studies at the University of Wales so that I could deepen my understanding of the religion and the people and the culture and through the book, through my love story, what I’ve tried to do is teach that religion is actually moderate.”

Harriet talks about her tour of Afghanistan, but focuses more on the interesting people she met, rather than her job.

“I met some incredible people. One of my closest friends out there was an American Imam who began my journey in Islam because he taught me. So when we were out there I experienced Ramadan with him, he gave me various gifts that I could learn from like the Quran. You meet all sorts of people out there.”

The book also talks about Harriet and Kranthi’s wedding, a less than conventional mass ceremony in a hall packed with 7000 people that made breaking news in India.

“It was amazing. From when I first arrived there, I embraced the Hindu culture. It takes a lot for a military officer to give up control of everything, but if my mother-in-law said do it, I did it, because that’s the culture. She said to me it’ll just be a small family wedding. There were about fifty other couples that we had to clamber over, all giving me death stares because I was the only white woman in the room.

“The minister caught sight of me and realised this was a great publicity opportunity so he pulled me to the front of the stage with my husband and everything just erupted! There were cameras flashing, people screaming our names and that went on for about three days. We couldn’t go anywhere without being recognised in India. I was hoping for a religious experience, and it definitely wasn’t that! But it was unforgettable.”

“I’ve tried to teach a little bit about religion as I’ve experienced it. But the most important message is tolerance. I’m married to a Hindu but my lifestyle is very different.”

Harriet hopes her book will also make people realise that there is another side to the military.

“The current climate is really difficult for both the military and for Muslims. I have many friends who are Muslims, one was my bridesmaid and I watch them struggle in the current climate and so if I can do the smallest thing that will show people that fundamentally, there is a level of understanding and tolerance, then that’s a good thing and that’s what the book is all about, underneath all the love story.

Above everything else, that’s what I'm trying to promote, if I can. It’s about teaching people in an easily readable way.”

After releasing a CD to accompany her book, Harriet plans to pursue music further, starting with the RAF Spitfires, the first ever RAF choir and founded by Harriet herself.

“I'm championing that you can be in the military and you can be tolerant of all religions. The RAF Spitfires are well established now, they sing in Westminster, so I kind of get my musical kicks through them, but I've got other things in the pipeline along the lines of the tolerance piece!”

Harriet hopes that people can learn something new from her book.

“My hope is that it reaches somebody and that everybody that reads it gets something from it because there are lots of different strands to it. The book was written four years ago and now my voice in that book is completely different to what it is now. You know, I'm married now, having children has fundamentally changed me, I've grown up a lot. And I don’t call my husband babe anymore!”

The proceeds from the sale of Where The Streams Meet goes to two charities, Womankind Worldwide, an international human rights charity; and the Sufi Saint School in Ajmer, India. Harriet tells how the school is a cause particularly close to her heart.

“If you go out to India, there are such extremes of poverty. As a westerner, if you see that and don’t feel like you want to give money, if you can go there and not think ‘right I have to do something’, there is probably something wrong with you. I met a young boy who took me to his house in the slums and he couldn’t go to school because he was working and he was 11 and I absolutely adored this boy, it broke my heart. So to pay for this school, to put children through education, would be amazing. Even 1000 books could buy them a library.”

Where The Streams Meet is priced at £9.99 and is available from all good bookstores, Amazon and Chaplin Books.