With his Guitar, walking along the Humber, Old Mills, 2023-October
Walks in and around Fall-2023
We met again in front of Old Mills and as a prelude, I usually try to spend some time reflecting on some aspect of life which brought us together in a particular place.
Remembering Adeline Whiteoak
The Jalna series by Mazo de La Roche, published in 1927 follows the Whiteoak family through generations. Adeline Whiteoak, a strongwilled and determined woman was dedicated to preserve the family traditions and estate. Her eldest son Philip is a kind and sensitive individual, his brother Renny is more assertive and passionate while the daughter Meg adds a feminine touch to the family estate.
Links with Benares house and the Harris family
The fictional Whiteoak family is said to be inspired by the Harris family, who stayed in Benares house of Clarkson, Mississauga. The Benares House dates from the late 1850s, taking its name from the holy city of Benares in India where James Harris served in the 1830s.
Earlier Perspectives
Discussions with Bill Manson-Local Historian of Hamilton region
At the same time, we have retreated from public spaces of our old neighbourhoods into the private spaces of our automobiles, the anonymity of our high-rises, the security of our gated-communities, and the isolation of our urban homes
See blog: Every Object has a Story: Bradley Museum Missisauga
As we walked in the early morning hour beside the Humber, my friend talked about the Czech origins of his mother, but how their family shifted to Warsaw due the troubled times in Europe in the time of the rise of Nazism in 1920s/1930s. Then she shifted to Ontario Canada, where she met a person of Czech origin
Following a family life
One of the tools of reflection on society has been to talk to families of different continents. Relating them to characters in literature and seeing how those voices speak through generations has been an interesting exercise which Tom and I have refined over the years.
Last month, he attended the wedding of the son of a couple he has known since 1980s. They named him Yukon as he was born there. This month he sang a song he had written in honour of the football team for which Yukon played.
20 years ago left India
On Sep 15-2003- I first went to Tripoli from Delhi. Over the decades, conversation with diaspora and relating them to discussions with mentors in India has been a growth experience.
For earlier perspectives -See 2017-September walks
Leaving family to go on a trip has a different feel than boarding the flight oneself.
Royal Botanical Gardens, Burlington, Ontario-2023-August : One of our thinking places. Over the years we have meditated in these areas and deepened our understanding of Canadian Immigrant life
As I bade farewell to family at Pearson, Mississauga, Canada again, it was a time to remember and reflect on the many journeys our family has made from here and other ports.
2012-2016: First trip and Initial years: The Ovation days
We first came here in July 2012, to start a new life in North America. We had stayed in Malta for two years prior to that, and I worked in Tripoli, Libya. In the initial years I would board the flight to Tripoli many times a year, working there and supporting my family. We used to stay in Ovation Mississauga in those years. Knowing well the many barriers which the Canadian system has for foreign trained professionals, I decided to support the family through my work in Tripoli, Libya.
2003 Damascus halts: Notes from my diaries
On my first trip to Tripoli in 2003, I had a break in Damascus.A veteran of Libya helped calm my nerves. He told of his work in the carpet factories in Bani Walid, his origins from Uttar Pradesh and how this work in Libya has helped give his family a different level.
Over the decades, I had many conversations with fellow immigrants and travelers from India and other countries. They introduced me to the nuances of the Arab world. Damascus is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, and has a rich and storied history. Founded in the third millennium BCE, along the Barada river, it was captured by Islamic Rashidun Caliphate under the leadership of Caliph Umar in the 7th century and played an important role in early expansion of Islam. Being part of the Ottoman empire since the 16 th century there are many common links between Damascus, Istanbul and Tripoli.
2003-Initial Hesitations to staying on for thirteen years
A mentor (Dr.SK) helped me overcome my initial hesitations of relocating to Tripoli. If your father had been alive, he would have encouraged you to try it out for a year, he had suggested. I stayed on for thirteen years, witnessed and participated first hand in the Arab spring-2011 and saw the aftermath of the civil war, NATO bombings and the instability which followed.
Mirroring Kurtz and Marlow- The Horror-The Horror
Just as the carpet weaver from Uttar Pradesh who worked in Bani Walid Libya taught me about expatriate life in Libya, the teachers of the University helped me read, discuss and understand works of literature in a new way. We formed the Tripoli Reading Group which would meet every week to discuss works of literature.
One of the books my friends and mentors Dr. J and Dr. M helped me understand better was “Heart of Darkness”. Narrated by Charles Marlow, he tells about his journey to the African Congo, to find Kurtz, the mysterious ivory trader. Just as Marlow’s journey into the Congo exposes the brutal exploitation and dehumanization of the native African population by the colonizers, the enigmatic ivory trader Kurtz is a symbol of the corrupting influence of power and the darkness within the human soul.
Kurtz’s famous last words, “The horror! The horror!” encapsulate the moral abyss he has reached. Tripoli Reading group helped us see modern versions of Kurtz- and this horror in Libya in the aftermath of the NATO Bombings. The horror still continues 12 years on.
Earlier perspectives:
Airports
2014 Mitiga
“I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago, the other day…
The slow casual remark of Marlow in Heart of Darkness, written
“Aapke badi baat bahut yaad aayegi” (roughly translated: we will miss and remember your big deal phrases) my mother in law said as we bade farewell at Terminal 1 of Pearson. This was the second trip of the Senior Karias (my parents in law) to Canada. They first came here in 2018. This time we ventured to United States by road, visited their son and family (Bharat Bhai Karia) in New Jersey and their grandson Sagar Bhatt Karia in New York city (Elmhurst, Queens)
Being from the Northern India Hindi Belt I speak and relate to Hindi in a different way. My in-laws have their roots in Karachi British India where they were born and spent their early childhood and Mumbai area of Western India where they built their life. Phrases like “Mein aapke ek Badi Baat bataata hoon” are common in the Hindi belt of Northern India.
Airports have been thinking places for me over the decades. In the initial years of Canada, the family would stay in Ovation, Mississauga, and I would board the flight to go to Tripoli. The focus was to sustain and grow the Canadian journey and life from outside. This is the story of many hundreds of thousands of professional immigrants to Canada. Now, in a different phase, I look back at those uncertain years and have a different feel when helping to receive or bid farewell to friends and family from Pearson.
It is at such airports that I have also meditated and reflected on the currents and teachings which other fellow-travelers introduced me to- from understanding nuances of works of “Heart of Darkness” to feeling the layers of history which are woven in the words of a carpet weaver from Uttar Pradesh who worked in Bani Walid.
Have you ever wondered about the difference between boarding and bidding farewell?
After the journey and reunion in New Jersey, we drove to the Queens area. Grandparents saw the house of Sagar, their grandson for the first time. It was a moment to cherish as we looked back at the Malad days of Mumbai when Nana-ji used to take Sagar to Pinnacle School and Nani-ji would pack lunches for the children.
THINKING PLACES-697 Candlestick -Assembling, Garden as a thinking place, with many facets from swings to trees and memorabilia – the Pottery from Visual Arts Mississauga, 2019 to the Trees from Burlington, Ontario
Drive through New York State
` The journey was a bit longer than expected as I did not put on the “Allow Tolls” in the GPS. The GPS took us through non-toll routes of NY State which led to a few hours of detour and tension. We even thought of staying in a motel in one of the smaller towns, but could not find any manager to check us in, so we drove on to Syracuse. The Motel was manned by a fellow-Gujarati and gave us a much-needed rest.
Early start the next day, through Toll routes helped us reach New Jersey on time.
Last October (2022) we visited New Jersey. The cat -Chakoo has had surgery since then. The different artworks were inspiring and educative as ever. The garden has further blossomed in the summer.
Learning from Literature: Remembering Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer
The drive through NY State reminded me of the works of Mark Twain, who wrote his classic books “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn” in Elmira New York. I first read these books when I was staying in Pune, (Golibar Maidan) during my secondary school years in St.Vincent’s High School. Sawyer is a coming-of-age story which deals with the joys, challenges and adventures of youth and explores themes of societal expectations and tension between the innocence of childhood and the responsibilities of adulthood.
The story tells about how Tom and Huckleberry Finn witness a murder in a graveyard committed by Injun Joe, a dangerous criminal, initially swear an oath of silence to what they have seen, but as the story progresses, help in the capture of Injun Joe.
My teachers in St.Vincent’s high school Pune first introduced me to this story and gave their own interpretations and commentaries on the passages. These further developed in me the love of the written word, which my parents had imbibed in me through the home libraries they created for us, even before we entered primary school.
Elmhurst again
The parking was found in front of the building very easily this time. We said joint prayers together in front of the family relics and photographs. Some of these like framed pictures of my parents (PNB-NB-on Marriage-Jan 30,1967) I gifted to my son Sagar when he left Mississauga last year to start a new phase of his life. A small pocketbook of The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr.Norman Vincent Peale is there on top of the refrigerator. Last year, 2022-July -we had gone to Marble Collegiate Church to pay respects to Dr.NVP and his message. I first started reading Dr.NVP when I was a medical student in Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi. We used to go to Connaught Place (CP) and get books. Another place was the Sunday bazaar at Darya Ganj.
THINKING PLACES- TORONTO AREA-
2023-June- Graydon Rock- Mississauga
After the prayers and meals, I went for a walk around Elmhurst, located in Queens New York City. This area was originally inhabited by the Mespactes Native American tribe and was settled by English and Dutch-origin settlers in the 17th century. In 1896, the area’s name was changed from Newtown to Elmhurst.
The journey of Sagar’s grandfathers: The generational lens
THINKING PLACES- PORT CREDIT Peace Stone-Mississuaga
Last year, when Sagar had left for NYC to join Google I had told him about the early 1960s when his grandfathers first left their homes to start a new life.
My father (PNB) joined the Indian army in the early 1960s after graduating in medicine from AIIMS, Delhi. He did one of his first tours of duty to the North East of India (Shillong, 1963). His connection through marriage (1967-Jan) to the Uniyal family gave him a different dimension of life, connected with BHU-Benares Hindu University’s campus life.
Earlier this year (Feb 2023) while travelling through the hills of Uttarakhand, on the way and back from Dhari Devi Mandir, Srinagar Garhwal, my uncle- Father’s younger brother (Rakesh Chacha ji) told me facets of Benares life and the way our family evolved which I had not known before.
Sagar’s Nana-ji (Shri JD Karia) started life in Nirlon, Mumbai in the early 1960s. As we sat in Elmhurst and Sahil went through machine learning exercises and we discussed how Artificial Intelligence (AI) has started changing horizons, Nanaji told of how he first began making diagrams of machines and projects when he joined Nirlon.
Learning from Literature: Remembering Jhumpa Lahiri’s – Shobha and Shukumar
As I walked around the neighbourhood, I recalled some of the stories from Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection- The Interpreter of Maladies. These stories highlight the challenges of assimilation and dissonance when persons with differences in upbringing, values and expectations try to connect.
One story of the “Interpreter of Maladies” was analyzed by the Art of Reading course we took when we stayed in Ovation, Mississauga (2012-2016).
Professor Tim Spurgin had told how the two master plots- Hero goes on a journey, Stranger comes to town are woven into this story – A Temporary Matter.
A young couple (Shobha and Shukumar) are drifting apart after a miscarriage and start connecting again by sharing secrets in the time when the light goes off every day in their apartment. But as they start sharing secrets they finally come to realize that they have drifted apart and now they wept for the things they now knew.
While I will not tell the mysteries which the Young Couple -Shobha and Shukumar shared, the last lines of the story may be inviting enough to go through the full story.
“Shukumar stood up and stacked his plate on top of hers. He carried the plates to the sink, but instead of running the tap, he looked out the window. Outside the evening was still warm, and the Brad fords were walking arm in arm. As he watched the couple the room went dark, and he spun around. Shoba had turned the lights off. She came back to the table and sat down, and after a moment Shukumar joined her. They wept together, for the things they now knew.”
THINKING PLACES-HAKKA CHILLI- MISSISSAUGA- Bharat Bhai Priti visit again first time after COVID19 lockdowns of 2020
July 2023
Perspectives from Elmhurst
As I look back at the walks in Elmhurst, with grandparents visiting Sagar house for first time, and some stories I remembered while driving to New York City.
We felt a sense of satisfaction at our family having achieved some important milestones.
The walk of grandparents in Elmhurst took many layers of effort and journeys.
Prashant Bhatt's notes 