His best friend was Gaetano Bresci, who was saving money to send money for his sister, a silk worker in Italy. During a strike there, the king Umberto 1, ordered the strike smashed. Gaetano’s sister was killed. So he said to my father, “ I am going back home to kill the king of Italy.” In 1900, he approached Umberto 1 with a bouquet of flowers and a gun, and he killed the king.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment and a law was passed: Anyone with the name Bresci had to change it. The name was to be erased from Italian life. My father said, “ The name is going to live. If I have a girl or boy, that name, Bresci, will be there.” That’s how I got this name
Bresci Thompson, New York City, as interviewed by Studs Terkel
P. 253, Coming of Age, Growing up in the Twentieth Century
We met at Candlestick on a late Fall evening -November 16-2024 around Diwali and Remembrance Day. One friend who was born in Tanzania told of how his grandparents came from Gujarat to East Africa. We talked about Coming of Age- the oral history narratives of Studs Terkel, which I had bought on a November walk in Chicago in 2009 on Michigan Avenue. Remembered a walk with a mentor, a Hindu who has stayed in Bahamas for long, on the Lakeshore of Lake Michigan at the end of the first decade of the 21st century.
The home library and reading journals are a way of life for me, inspired and taught to me by my father, maternal grandfather and uncles who instilled in me the love of the written word.
The Indian origin Hindu community has some unease around the protests arising from the presence of consular officers in temples. There is a need to develop discernment between the spiritual community, officials, civil society, law abiding and law-keeping persons and persons with extremist views in different groups.
Remembering Brescis
Remembered some “Brescis” I knew and their actions on the ground in North Africa. I connected with this friend, born in Tanzania as I too have had a great connection with Africa, having stayed in Libya for 10 plus years. Those experiences in crowds, some persons just watching a change of the regime, but others being armed came to mind as we went over some recent events in Canada.
There were times when I came to know what a palpitation is when there is firing, and then a time when I came to know when the heart comes into the mouth- when there were louder sudden explosions. One night I was winding down and preparing to sleep when a loud explosion ripped apart the calm of the neighbourhood as the walls of the Spanish embassy (a five-minute walk from where I used to stay) were blown off, supposedly because the then UN Special Representative for Libya Mr. Bernardino León of Spain- not doing things in a good-enough manner.
Spirituality in Shared Moments- over Meals, coffee, tea
Remembrance Day 2024
The spiritual experience of sharing a meal together in a safe, open, manner with persons of the community reminded me of times we have met over the years, around Diwali and Remembrance day. One friend came over for tea, and told of how his grandfather participated in both the World Wars. He went to World War 1- as a young man in his twenties. When the troubles around World War 2 started, he went to Europe before 1939, and stayed there for over ten years. Stories of the Navy, his memories of his grandfather as a quiet, big man came alive over a cup of Tea. As one mentor taught me, when two persons share in honesty, there is God or a Higher Power in the room.
Ganesh Chaturthi 2024
The meals brought by different families , the flavours of different parts of India, reminded me of the previous time we had gathered around Ganesh Chaturthi in the house of my Earl Grey friend. The previous years at Webb drive with great views were a part of our Community and Spiritual Calendar. Having spent my childhood years in Maharashtra, (Pune) and university years in Mumbai (KEM, Parel) I can relate to Ganesh Chaturthi with a tinge of nostalgia. Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak had laid the foundation of large-scale Ganeshotsav in 1890s as a way to unite the common people.
Remembering Streams at Fullerton Hall
As I walked with my mentor who has lived in Bahamas for long, around the building which now houses the Art Institute, reading some pages from “Coming of Age” we remembered the speech by Swami Vivekananda (Born Narendranath Dutta, the chief disciple of the mystic Ramakrishna) at the World Parliament of Religions. The Fullerton Hall which now houses Art Insitute of Chicago was the place were Swami Vivekananda made his famous address:
“ I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: “As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.”
(Source : Swami Vivekananda and His 1893 Speech | The Art Institute of Chicago_)
Reading Journals
Early Grey Moments, shared meals and talks around Remembrance Day made me look at some walks in the summer gone by. We had walked to 53rd street MOMA -Museum of Modern Art from Elmhurst, and the next day had gone to meet my aunt and had Dosas together.
Mornings- Kariya Park-Mississauga Fall 2024
In the morning, before the meals together, had gone to meet a friend and mentor who told me the origins of his name in Scottish tradition and things about my name in the Sanskrit traditions. These shared coffees have been moments to look back and revisit our origins.
We also did a silent prayer for Charles – the Gorilla of Toronto zoo who passed away recently. The zoo has been one of our thinking places for over a decade.
What memory around a shared meal has changed you?
Earlier Perspectives
Remembering Sue- 2012: Walks in Field Museum-Chicago (2010)
Prashant Bhatt's notes 