Dear Friends,
Next story from Fiji:-
I was fortunate to arrive right in the middle of the week long
festival for Lord Krishna's birthday. This of course means a whole
week of vegetarian food, but that's tolerable. Couldn't wait to kill
the duck next day though :) Each night we went to Arjan's home where
the Hindu Holy Book was read for about an hour interspersed with
fabulous Indian singing accompanied by their Daruk drum and
enthusiastic percussion. After that the men sat on the verandah
drinking kava and eating food as more songs were sung.
On the final day my friend Praveen told me that I would be giving a
vote of thanks in Hindi. "OK - that'll be fine - now help me with the
Hindi"!! He kindly translated my first paragraph into good Hindi and
I learned it by heart. Basically saying that I felt my Hindi was not
good enough to say what I really meant and apologizing that the rest
would have to be in English, hoping they would understand (and
knowing that they would of course). It all went well.
Unfortunately their leading Music teacher, Momu, whom I knew from
previous trips, had died a couple of months before - heart attack at
43yrs of age. His wife had been very stoic and attended each of the 7
nights. Her 2 teenage sons lead the musicians. In my speech I
commented on how sad it was that Momu was no longer with us, but what
a thrill to see his gift for music being carried on through his sons.
At this stage the women were in the room next door listening through
the gap above the wall. That was when she broke up and the keening
and wailing was awesome.
David in Ballarat
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