Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Sweet Saskatoon
Two and a half hours north (by
car and not on foot) is the city of Saskatoon. I made it in time for the Chariot
Fest managed by a gracious couple, Vivek and Amee. They receive a lot of help
from their friends. Two lovely young daughters got to the stage for a “Bharat
Natyam” classical dance performance.
Ryan flew in from Toronto to play
djembe to my lead on chanting. Our methodology was to get safely seated in the
back of the “sound” truck and sing and play from there. Radhika from Milton was
on the hand cymbals (kartals). This worked well. We were stationed with
the vehicle in slow movement in front of all the chanters of which were several
hundred. This provided good interaction. And from my view, if I saw one of the
pedestrian chanters step over the middle yellow line on the street I used my
mic to indicate, “Stay on this (safe) side of the line.” It wasn’t often but I
felt I was assisting the police escorts.
Speaking of police, you will not
find a cooler “Chief of Police” in Canada. Chief Officer Troy Cooper danced
with us at the park site along the North Saskatchewan River. In fact, I think
the “icing on the cake” to this 7th Annual Ratha-Yatra was
the kirtan session at the end. People got involved with the “Swami Step”
and other movements, to the rhythmic beat of the drum and after the light but
tasty and well-liked, grain-free meal. Good work done! The Lord of the Universe
must be pleased.
May the source be with you!
3km
Ps. I managed to grab and eat some wild saskatoon berries at the end of the day.
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