On Sahil’s 25th birthday and the week around 18 September, we went for prayers, meditations, and walks at Riverwood. We also visited Erindale and Port Credit. We attended spiritual workshops-day retreat at Centennial Park.
Walking Meditation by the Credit River Erindale
After prayers at the memorial tree of PNB, we did walking meditation by the Credit-Erindale section. We practiced awareness meditation of the elements of earth, water, wind, and fire. We also discussed impermanence. Later we drove to Port Credit, had a dinner at Sarvanna and ice cream at Dairy Queen.
Riverwood has been a thinking place for over a decade. We walked on Red Trail and then went to Sherwoodtowne. There, we read a few lines from Pachinko, the novel by Min Jun Lee. It was gifted to us by the Nawani family from Delhi in December 2024.
Pachinko is a Japanese arcade game, linked to gambling. Despite its popularity, the Japanese look down on Pachinko parlours as dens connected with criminals.
Koreans who settled in Japan are referred to as Zainichi. The novel Pachinko tells about the story of one such Zainichi family. It follows the life of Sunja. Her sons thrive in the business. But, her firstborn, Noa, never comes to terms with the circumstances of his life. Read the novel to know about Noa’s fate.
(Hint: His ending was similar to two pivotal characters in the movie Jolly LLB 3, which we saw during the week of Sahil’s birthday.)
Art of Reading Reflection
Drawing historical parallels and learning from history is a tool which has helped enhance our reading journals. The story of Sunja reveals themes of forced migration. It explores how generations evolve in their thinking. These themes came alive while reading this novel. My parents passed on the gift of the love of the written word to me. Other seniors in the family did as well. As we read the initial pages of Pachinko, our thoughts turned to family members. They have been displaced by partition and geopolitical events. Tracing the story of some of our extended family (both my parents in law were born in Karachi-British India) has been a way to understand history and society better
In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant–and that her lover is married–she refuses to be bought.
Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son’s powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations. Source : Librarian’s Perspective
Remembering yester years- Remembered the time around Sahil’s birthday in 2023-when we watched the movie “Oppenheimer”
Previous perspectives-2015- Sahil is 15- the year he became taller than me
Walks with Sahil -2015 https://prashantbhatt.com/2015/09/17/walks-with-sahil/
Prashant Bhatt's notes 