Prashant Bhatt's notes

How does the world look like, feel to the

character

This is one of the purposes of description

Professor Tim Spurgin- Art of Reading

As we walked through the woods of Bruce National Park – Tobermory , Sahil and I talked about the mother, as remembered by her daughter in the Alice Munro story – Friend of my youth

THE REALLY MYSTERIOUS PERSON

To me the really mysterious person in the story, as my mother told it, was Robert

Alice Munro – Friend of my Youth

This week I finally got the offer to give the Citizenship test of Canada.

Reflected on the many journeys walks we have made as a family as we took some time off from Mississauga and went to Tobermory.

The Bobcageon retreats in 2020- August and Niagara retreat of 2021- February have been refined further. In these retreats we have a relook at some literature as a way to see the world, through the eyes of a character in a story.

Beginnings 2003 – September Tripoli Libya

I first left India in 2003- September to work for a year in Tripoli Libya. I stayed on for thirteen years .

In those years I made friends with Diaspora from India and other countries, and developed close friendships with local Libyans who supported, guided me in my work and life.

One of my friends from this period who helped me see the world through different lenses helped show the power of attending a community service regularly

Over many cups of coffee and cake he showed me layers of reality in different construction projects he has participated in – over the decades.

“ I saw the Shah being ousted in Iran,(1979), Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait (1991) and the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya( 2011) “ he shared his insights, while we sat in Dahra Tripoli , after attending the Friday Mass at San Francisco church .

The congregation was led by Bishop Giovanni Martenelli ( Born Feb 5-1942 Italian Libya Died Dec 30-2019 Saccolongo Italy) those days

Suggested further readings

Remembering St Augustine of Hippo

Walks in Malta 2020-12

The family stayed in Sweiqi Malta for two years .

These years we became part of the Diaspora in Malta and learned from veterans of the Indian community who left British India when partition / independence happened and settled in the Mediterranean.

These veterans taught through their examples many layers which go into forming identities, keeping the legacy

Suggested further reading

Conversations in Identity

MISSISSAUGA ONTARIO 2021- July

In the initial years we spent lovely hours reading and discussing nuances of stories of authors such as Alice Munro, Jhumpa Lahiri, Nadine Gordimer

Oh, she understood: the blacks, do they know, are they grateful to whites who endanger their own lives for them. So that was the set of tracks along which this one’s mind trundled; there were others who came up to her, sweating and pitched to their greatest intensity, Miss Burger you don’t know me but I want to tell you, the government calls him a Communist but your father is God’s man, the holy spirit of our Lord is in him, that’s why he is being persecuted.

Burger’s Daughter- Nadine Gordimer

A DAUGHTER REMEMBERS

This week , we went through some walks , stories and memories- as I remembered the first time I left India in Sep 2003 for Libya. Literature and keeping a “ Reading Journal “ have been a source of solace and gaining insights.

As we walked through the woods and touched upon the character Robert in the Alice Munro story – Friends of my youth- we reflected upon how the world looks like and feels to different characters.

The Lake Huron looks different from the Groto , and so do the stories we have read, reflected upon and discussed over the years.

END NOTE – Thanksgiving to the

literature teachers

Sahil talked about the teachers like Mr Blake ( English Gordon Graydon Mississauga 2018)

while I remembered teachers like Mrs Mulay , ( Kendriya Vidyalaya Southern Command – KVSC – Pune India 1981) who helped us to develop the love of the written word.

The Cameronians

THE CAMERONIANS, I have discovered, are or were an uncompromising remnant of the Covenanters –those Scots who in the seventeenth century bound themselves, with God, to resist prayer books, bishops, any taint of popery or interference by the King. Their name comes from Richard Cameron, an outlawed, or “field,” preacher, soon cut down.

Alice Munro – Friends of my Youth

As we walked in the northern most point of the Bruce trail – listening to the whispers of breeze through the trees in the forest- we remembered and discussed some characters, how they viewed the world and how they changed ( or did not change) as the story progressed.

MAYANK IS 19

Today – Feb 27 is my nephew Mayank ‘s 19 th birthday.

A few days ago , on 10 th Feb

was my sister’s birthday.

And Ten days before that was the marriage anniversary of my late parents – Jan 30 ( 1967)- Benares.

WHO WILL TAKE ME TO THE ZOO

( 2008- November)

In recent books on logic, distinction is made between two orders of inquiry concerning anything. First, what is the nature of it? how did it come about? what is its constitution, origin, and history? And second, What is its importance, meaning, or significance, now that it is once here?

William James – Philosopher

Writing letters, notes on trips and family

gatherings have been a tradition which my grandparents, parents passed on to me. The parks of Delhi have been our Thinking places for four generations- since 1930s .

We have spent some lovely hours sifting through the different trails, flower beds , and enclosures of parks like Lodhi, Humayun tomb, Qutub and Delhi zoo. When my passport was lost in 2008 November ( in a hurry to get down at Okhla rather than Nizamuddin- I left my bag with all documents in the train)

the only person not happy with the passport being found was little Mayank

⁃ then six years old.

Now you will be off to Tripoli,

who will take me to the zoo

Mayank- 2008- Nov – Delhi

SISTERHOOD

When we were studying in school- St Anne’s high school Pune camp, my sister’s school, we used to go to Parvati temple Pune – and visit the temples and the museums – the last repose of Nanasahib Peshwa.

The love of historical parks , museums was passed on to me by my father. His elder sister told me about my grandfather’s love for the garden tombs of Delhi.

Spinoza says: “I will analyze the actions and appetites of men as if it were a question of lines, of planes, and of solids.”

But the spiritual value of these walks -from the trips to Parvati temple Pune, early morning walks to Lullanagar or as we became teenagers- the hill temples in and around Shimla and Rishikesh regions

go beyond lines, planes, solids.