In a society where flying off to India is routinue and bouncing around the country is nothing, my trip is probably insignificant, but as everything in the material world is relative, for me it was a big deal.
I hadn’t been anywhere except medical related trips or to see my granddaughters in a decade or more, and over the last 4 years I haven’t even been going to shows with Vidya much, so a trip to New York City was a big deal for me.
Both Ranaka and my rides are older well maintained vehicles (read: junkers) so we rented a car to make the trip. We had planned to go the weekend before but a major storm had caused that to be canceled. This time, it was snowy and salt city out on the Interstate highways for the first half of the trip, but we seemed to be well stocked on windshield washer fluid so we got through that.
We arrived in NYC after dark and headed out past JFK airport to just inside Nassau county where we spent the night with an old friend of my wife, Sarvesvari. She is part of the New Vrindaban diaspora, having lived here from 1970-75. She then moved to Gita Nagari with a bunch of other NV devotees before eventually returning to civilian life.
Naturally we had a lively conversation about the austerities of the old days and what happened to whom. I asked, as is my habit, if she had any pictures of Taru as they are a rare commodity, and she went to look for her old picture book from that era, but wasn’t able to get it as her neighbors are renovating their house so she had a lot of their stuff stored in her garage and the album was underneath it all. Eventually, she will share them with me.
She made us a nice supper of squash soup and chappatis with side dishes of hummus, tahini, salsa, and something else which slips my mind. The meal may have been vegan but was so good i forgot to ask.
She lives 3 blocks from the ocean, so we went down to the beach in the morning for a little seaside meditation before heading into the city.
The trip in was easy traffic being Saturday morning (we planned to go on the weekend with traffic being one consideration) and, after I forgot which way 1st Avenue ran so we had to circle around a bit, we arrived at the Sanctuary, an island of sanity in Manhattan, the belly of the Beast.
March 4, 2008 at 10:05 am
sending any postcards? Mary is in karate now.
Madhu
March 4, 2008 at 11:43 am
No postcards, just blogging it.
Karate is could training for soccer. :-)
March 4, 2008 at 2:45 pm
I did not forget your picture of Taru. Well, I kind of did. I could not find it immediately after we last talked. It must be in the attic, but I forgot to go up. Last night I had a dream about Taru as I often do, and I woke up remembering that I had forgoten to search for the pic. Will so do soon.
My love to Vidya. Gomata
March 4, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I appreciate your looking. Pictures of him are rare.