Thursday, August 16th, 2012

Good Company

Melbourne, Ontario

One really good thing about the ongoing travel is that you not only get to make friends (like Sarah Davies, a parapsychologist who pulled over her vehicle out of interest), but it’s a door that opens to old friends. My spiritual brother, Gaura, a musician, a speaker, a BBT book distributor, and above all a Vaishanava devotee, came to join me for a special treat of walking along the Canadian version of the Thames. Since Gaura resides in the area, in fact in an apartment right off Highway 2, it was easy to connect with him. The camaraderie is as invaluable as we had shared together in younger years trips by vehicle going from community to community in the rural districts. We were taking devotee handicrafts and books by our guru Srila Prabhupada for selling. It was a means to support our temple ashram.

Gaura and I took to the trail along the meandering waters. It’s another world there sheltered from the madness of the city. Being a bit of a gypsy, Gaura finds himself using London, Ontario area as a base for the time being. We went through a woodsy Carolinian forest. Impressive are some of the old willows and black walnut trees. Also, this afternoon, Daruka and I got rather captivated by a falcon who perched himself on a municipal wire which was hanging over a major thoroughfare. With traffic in motion just below him, he seemed to be adjusted to urban environment.

At hilltop market off Highway 2, a 50’s diner drew Daruka and I in for a retro blast-in-the-past visit. The major icon here is Elvis who is celebrated today for passing away 35 years ago. I recall chanting in kirtan on Yonge Street in Toronto in the 70’s one afternoon when moving along in procession my eye caught the headlines from a newspaper stand, “The King Is Dead”. This reminiscence simply throws me back to simpler times. Radical that he was with his music and pelvic motions, it looks pretty chaste compared to today’s stuff. God bless Elvis!

Dinner was with a family from India. Kasyap and Vaishali treated us to a nice toor dhal soup. We spent time with them. Kasyap really ‘gets down’ with kirtan, so does Gaura and I’m sure so would Elvis if he was with us. It’s all good company.

34 Km