anecdote

New article at Write Spirit. (more…)

I was flying to New York and began the journey of 3,000 miles at a bus stop in Oxford. The first person waiting at the bus stop was an immaculately…

My good friend from America, Mahiruha works in a grocery store. He asked why the British expats were so keen on Indian cuisine. This is my take on his question.

The first thing that springs to mind – if you grew up eating British school dinners you would better understand the popularity of curry and Indian food.

When I was growing in Yorkshire many years ago (in the days of black and white tv e.t.c.) – we were lucky to get more than a diet of tripe, dumplings and boiled cabbage (and sometimes custard with a horrible skin on it). By, contrast a curry seemed incredibly exotic. I think I tried a mouthful aged five but my taste buds were not acclimatised, and I took a dislike. I never took another curry until aged 18 I had my first curry in a restaurant in Bradford. I ordered an “extra mild curry” – quite nervous about the exotic spices and was pleasantly surprised it was quite tasty. If only we had a bit of curry powder to mask the horrid tastes when growing up.

The only thing is that curry doesn’t mix well with Yorkshire Pudding. If made properly, they are very good genuine British cuisine. (more…)

During our Christmas vacation, Sri Chinmoy would encourage his students to perform plays. These plays would be based on Sri Chinmoy’s own stories – and would usually have some kind of uplifting message or spiritual lesson. These stories might be adapted in numerous ways – often with a humorous slant.

I think Sri Chinmoy encouraged us to write and perform plays for a variety of reasons. One of the many reasons was simply to do something different and put yourself in a situation outside your comfort zone. I don’t naturally veer towards the stage and am usually content to sit at the back and watch. But, whilst out cycling, I got an idea for a play. It was based on two things:

1. A talk Sri Chinmoy gave just before the New Year (an old audio recording) about the importance of concentrating on the good qualities of other people.
2. A play about Socrates visiting a palm reader. (see: Sincerity, simplicity and purity) Because we were in Greece, many groups had adapted this particular play about Socrates visiting a palm reader and how his followers become mad when the palmist saw undivine qualities in their teacher. The joke was that in this case, people were mad the palm readers couldn’t see the undivine qualities of their friend.

Bob, the lazy person, was played by Nirbhasa, who is one of the wonders of the modern age – tirelessly enthusiastic and busy. It was a minor joke to have him play the lazy one. He did a good transformation at the end. I played Tom.

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