Rodas, Cuba
May He Rest in Peace
Very coincidentally, long-standing leader
of Cuba, Fidel Castro, passed away last night during our short stay in this
unique country of the world.
I slept very little
last night and it wasn’t because of the usual partying at the resort we stayed
at. Perhaps, there was some, more subtle, stirring in the atmosphere. I was told by Nanda M. from our Canadian
group,
that Castro left at 10 p.m.
A message came from
our coordinator, Janardan, that we are not to sing today at Rodas, the
destination of tonight’s bhakti
program. People will mourn for nine days, and as far as I could
understand, within this time-frame, his body would be cremated.
I remember hearing of
Mr. Castro when I was a kid. He was a
regular headliner then and had, over the forthcoming decades, been a fairly high
profiler. He was buddies with our
deceased Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau, and attended the Canadian
leader’s funeral.
Outside of Cuban
resort areas, the nation was quiet. Even
Saturday night’s usual “loudness” was conspicuous by its absence. We conducted a bhakti program but kept it quiet from a musical/chanting point of
view. On foot, Dhira and I went out after the program, to find radio broadcasts from people’s homes
were in an amazing lull. Out of respect,
people were low-key in everything done.
Spanish spunkiness was asleep, while constant sobriety prevailed. When Dhira and I arrived at our ten pesos a night accommodation,
the owner told us he removed the DVD players so no jovialness would emanate
from the house.
May he rest in peace!
May the Source be with
you.
7 km
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