Thursday 1 December 2016

Saturday, November 26th, 2016

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

No comments: