Winter Rose blooming at 697 Candlestick – 2024 January: Reminds of the words of Ruskin Bond – life has not been a bed of roses but I have had some roses out of season.

Jackson Heights – around ten years ago, (2015) while visiting Mississauga from Tripoli, family showed me the serial ” Jackson Heights” . It follows the life of immigrants in New York, through the story of a taxi driver and his association with a hard working married lady who works in a Beauty parlour ( Learning from literature tool)

JOURNEYS, MAPS, TERRITORIES

After an uneventful flight from Pearson to LaGuardia, got down at 90- Elmhurst -Route 7 and reached Sagar’s home before 130 pm just as he was finishing a  meeting.

Dera – Jackson Heights: A meal together

 We walked on 37th Avenue, on way to Dera, an Indian restaurant. Passed Kalpana Chawla way on 37 th , with TD Bank at that intersection.

On being asked when I first tasted Palak chicken, I told of Khadki cantonment days early 1970 s. We used to live in 24 Bombay Poona road. My mother cooked like her mother did in Benares. Our families have lived in university campuses or cantonments which have a different nuance and rhythm of life.

The meal together at Dera reminded me of the many meals we had in Safir Tripoli Libya, and the discussions on African Indian Diaspora, life during Gaddafi’s Libya and how things shaped up after the end of that regime.

READINGS AND METTA VARIATIONS

My parents instilled in me a love for reading. 

The reading and discussing of a book is a tradition which we have followed for decades. In that spirit, as we returned back to Elbertson , we went through excerpts of Living Kindness by Kevin Griffin.

Metta Meditation tradition sends peace, happiness,health , safety, at ease, free from Suffering wishes of compassion to benefactors, mentors, friends, family, neutral persons, difficult persons, the group and the tradition. 

Digesting difficult things : Variations of Metta Meditation

 Jung said that if we don’t digest difficult things it will run our lives. The variation of Metta which accepts and processes difficult things can be broken down into manageable parts. This concept was given a different twist when we read Tonglen meditation done on the occasion of 9/11 ( 2001) when the practitioners were told to be open to the pain and anger of the persons who planned and executed the attack. 23 years on, and the destruction of many countries later – one remembers the words of Nietzsche – that in trying to exterminate monsters one should be mindful not to become a monster oneself

SOME CONVERSATIONS

Some conversations on 37 th 

While returning we walked past the post office, school buildings of Jackson Heights which were looking majestic in the evening

Pb : Walk slowly as otherwise I later get a lot of pain in the knee

Sagar : This is because of genetics ( my mother, his grandmother – died in 2011 after complications on being admitted for knee replacement surgery…she died before the surgery)

Pb – these things are taken care of, not cured

 We are spirits and will pass one day

S – When did you start eating Palak chicken ( an Indian dish with spinach)

P – my mother made it- early 1970 s, Pune and the last time was in an Indian restaurant in Mississauga 

S – So your mother was non vegetarian

P – we come from a military family

.

Memorable walks at Queens New York

Earlier perspectives

2019 June : Riverwood Mississauga

  Conversations on eve of China trip