Autumn

Colors are changing, air is becoming cooler, light goes away earlier and the earth is ready to rest. It’s already autumn. The things that strike me more about this passage are obviously trees. They seem to stop. They give up summer “frills” and become bare, essential. This sober look seems especially made to confuse and hide what is going on inside, instead, under the surface where they keep on working to grow again and get ready to face what will come.

I found myself thinking about it a few days after the end of autumn Navaratri, thinking over the meaning of the work we do in that period. Even if life goes on as always, between work and daily tasks, the deep and intense prayer allow us to leave worldly things and appearances, and come closer to the essence of what we really are. And, perhaps, from this point of view, the comparison with trees isn’t so odd. We work inside ourselves, and through meditation and concentration we look for the strength we will need to face our daily life and future, ready to grow even stronger, firmer and fuller of things to give.

However, this kind of task is always accompanied by concrete action and work. In short, we try to never stop!

We are, in fact, already immersed in arranging the second edition of the Polenta in palazzo, a fundraising lunch for the pupils of the Shri Aghoreshwar Gurukul that last year, to our great satisfaction, met with huge success. The lunch will be on November 18th, in the main hall of Palazzo Archinti, in Mezzago, the small town seat of our association. The menu, rich and tasty, has been already chosen. Now we just have to do the shopping, prepare and cook!

Many people who were satisfied with the lunches we organized before have decided to support this project once again and have confirmed that they will be present this time, too. And for the ones who have never come and want to share this event with us, we can just say: “Welcome!”.

This October has also been enriched by a pleasant meeting. Thanks to a friend of mine, I’ve been invited to talk about Indian culture to the third grade pupils of the school of Monte Marenzo, a small town in the province of Lecco. With their teachers and educators, the kids are following an intercultural project and discovering distant countries, among which is India.

As they are children, I decided to talk about Indian culture telling them the way of living of their peers who go to the Shri Aghoreshwar Gurukul, so that they could find it more interesting. Through pictures, typical clothes and objects I showed them how people live in an Indian village, what children do in addition to going to school (looking after younger brothers, helping cook, picking up cow dung for the fire, ect.), and the organization of classes in school. Seeing the differences between their way of living and the one of Indian children stroke them a lot. They couldn’t believe that they could have a class sitting on the ground, in the garden, on mats, getting warm under the winter sun and that they could eat with their hands!

The children were very interested and asked many questions. It was very nice to see their enthusiasm when I invited them to wear a wedding sari and a longi, and when I stuck a bindi on little girls’ forehead and drew a little mark with red powder on little boys’ forehead.

Towards the end of the class, I showed them some drawings our children made (it’s strange to see an elephant next to the house…) and, as I had already did last summer in India, I asked them to draw a peacock, Indian national bird, starting from the outline of their hands. They made it with great care, letting their imagination run wild while choosing decoration and colors for the feathers, accompanied by the video of our kids dancing to the tune of Eena Meena Deeka.

I said goodbye to them giving them a thank-you card as a souvenir of the day. I hope the class has made them curious, some day, perhaps, to go and see and experience personally what they have just been told and shown in a photo.

It has been a very intense month, this October that is closing with the hope that next months can be like this one and always keep us busy with positive action for the others and, therefore, for ourselves.

Namasté,

Viviana