Prashant Bhatt's notes

This Father’s Day, went to pray at the Erindale park, Mississauga, and remembered similar trees in Shimla region of Himachal India, where we used to go for summer vacations from Pune in 1970s. Thoreau (1861) said of the white pine “There is no finer tree”.

ERINDALE PARK- MARCH 2022

I had taken my sons to Erindale in spring, and we had heard some old Hindi songs which were my father’s favourites. As I remember the walks in Lullanagar, Pune in childhood, I am filled with gratitude for the gift of the morning hour, when night turns into day, which my father and maternal grandfather gave me.

Flashcards, meditations, museums, 100-day plans, calendars, walks, tables are some of the other gifts which have enriched my life, which were given to me by my father.

FAMILY DAY-2022-FEBRUARY-RICHARD MEMORIAL PARK-

Work out your own salvation

Do not depend on others

                                    Buddha.

Some lessons my mother taught me…

Museums with children

PALAM-1999 HUMBER-2019-Old Mills-Toronto

SEE – BENARES-2017

https://prashantbhatt.com/2017/11/25/benares-maps/

I have no living memory of my paternal grandfather who passed away in April 1969. Through elder cousins I came to know that he was a lover of monuments, gardens, museums, trade fairs and exhibitions. Museum walks have been a part of the family tradition for generations. I tried to pass it on to my sons. Remember the walk in Bradley Museum, Port Credit, Mississauga, in June 2017, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of its establishment.

SEE

BRADLEY MUSEUM-50 YEARS-2017

https://prashantbhatt.com/2017/06/25/bradley-museum-50-years/

MUSEUM WALKS- JODHPUR SPECIAL EXHIBITION..ROM-2019-AUGUST

Tables

Recently I met two batch mates of the Class of 1985, Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, Delhi. “Have you seen your mother talking in such a carefree manner before” I asked the batchmate’s son, who is himself now in university. In a great compliment her son said, he has. “So she has retained her sense of humour through the years…”

Sitting in Mississauga, Ontario, we talked about the days of Delhi Ridge in the 1980s…Setting tables are something which I learned from my father in many direct and indirect ways.

MANRESA-2022-MAY…Through meditations in the Sahyadris of Western India and the Himalayas, my father introduced me to the magic of retreats.

Collections

My father would send First Day covers from Nagaland-North East of India in 1970s. He would also send butterflies and leaves which are not seen in Western India. Those collections expanded on the stamps I had started collecting in primary school. Stamps made me learn about countries in Africa (where I later spent many happy years).

2021-APRIL-TUGS PLATFORM-TOBERMORY-Exploring Local histories

In the Bruce Trail..the Bruce trail is a public footpath spanning the entire Niagara Escarpment whose northern terminus was inaugurated in Tobermory in 1967-Canada’s Centennial Year. Named as “the trail to the Bruce” , the Bruce Peninsula and County are named after James Bruce, 8^th Earl of Elgin, Governor General of Canada (1847-1854). James Bruce never had the good fortune to walk the Bruce Trail. (https://brucetrail.org/pages/about-us/our-history)

My mother’s sister

Yesterday night, connected with my mother’s sister in Vasant Kunj. “ If your mother had been alive, we would have been in Palam” she said in a sad refrain. One of life’s lessons is feeling the spirit of the persons who have passed away physically. My father’s mother passed away in the 1940s when he was around five years old. But her presence was felt in our home, and my father would often talk about the mother he never had.

As we remembered the many of the extended family who have passed away before their time in the COVID19 waves, we saw some old pictures. She showed me a picture of her parents (my maternal grandparents) in Moscow in 1970s. I told her I have a version of the photograph with my aunt (the youngest of the three Uniyal sisters) with her parents. Remembered the Benares 2017 trip…the walks by the Ganga, the visit to E 10 BHU campus where the trees planted by my grandfather in the 1950s have grown tall.

SEE

LULLANAGAR-PUNE-1970 s

https://prashantbhatt.com/2008/08/19/walkers-at-lullanagar/

Remembering yester years

The museum walks that my father imbibed from his father, and I tried to pass on to my son, evolved into family albums and art libraries. We used to follow the calendar of the Manoel theater in Malta and spent some lovely hours there watching musicals and magic shows. The walks in Lullanagar, evolved to walks in Xlendi, Gozo in the Mediterranean to Trails in Ontario.

RATTRAY-MARSH- 2019-OCTOBER

Readings,exploring silence in open spaces..some gifts from my father

Looking ahead

As my sons graduate from university and evolve to the next stage, I remember the day they graduated from High school (Gordon Graydon,2018-Mississauga).

GORDON GRAYDON-2018-JUNE…The last batch of Gordon Graydon Memorial,

Ogden Road, Mississauga.

A few moments more

References

Thoreau, Henry David (1861).The writings of Henry David Thoreau: Journal.p.33.

Our shared journeys together.

Last year we got a cycle, and I think I was riding one after almost twenty-five years.

We went to Central Island Toronto and rode the cycle through the parks. We went to Hanlan’s point on Sep 5, 2021, which  was the day in 1914 when Babe Ruth hit his first homerun. The islands have an interesting history.

Gardening, gym, kitchen, picnics, kept us busy.

Tobermory in April 2021, was the northernmost point of the Bruce Trail, which has been named after James Bruce, 8^th Earl of Elgin, Governor-General of Canada, 1847 to 1854, who never had the good fortune to walk the Bruce Trail. There are many interesting histories and facts related to the Bruce Trail which can be read here.

Niagara walks, where we first came as a family in 2013 continued in interesting ways, as we stayed there and visited the historical areas nearby. Remembering history walks of yesteryears- 2017-Bradley Museum celebrated fifty years.