When I arrived in London, it was again the responsibility of my hosts to recognize me. The man who picked me up at the airport did without difficulty, greeted me and brought me to his car. In the car I got to know that he was actually a friend of the family who had invited me. My hosts had not been able to come themselves as they were busy with some social responsibilities. Just like the family who invited me to Mallorca, I did not know them in person but they were connected with someone in India who knew me.
The man brought me to my host’s home in Harrow, a suburb of London where I soon met the family. It was of course an Indian family, living as a joint family, and they welcomed me very heartily and with the respect that you give to a holy person.
I was planning to stay there for a week and they had already arranged some lectures and satsangs for me. They were a rich family and had a big house, so there was enough space for the maybe forty or fifty people who came to see me and listen to what I had to say about the scriptures and their messages. We had some sessions where people could ask questions and I answered and everybody was very interested to hear how I interpreted the scriptures.
Of course, again, everybody in these lectures was Indian. In their home, in this area, I felt as if we were living in a small Indian world. I was surrounded by Indians all the time, when you went for shopping, you went into an Indian store that had lots of Indian food and was run by Indians and visited by Indians. All in all there was not much difference to what I knew from India.
The family father however asked me to spend some time with his daughters and teach them yoga as well as to give them some mantras and prayers for their future. He wished for them to value their Indian culture and heritage and not to get spoiled by the western culture in which they were growing up. So I taught them yoga, a prayer and mantras for a good future. The family was wishing that they would get settled in a nice marriage and would lead a happy life. It was interesting to spend time with Indians who live in the west and in western culture but kept their roots alive.
They naturally also took me to the center of London City so that I could do some sightseeing, just like everybody who is in London for the first time. Apart from visiting Buckingham Palace and Leicester Square, I also did a lot of shopping from shampoo and clothes to chocolate, all things to bring home to my family and friends in India. I remember bringing a blue bathrobe which my father still wears today, ten years later.
In this way the week in London passed quickly and I found myself back at the airport with about 80 kilogram of luggage to take back. It was all full of things to bring home and I had left my own luggage, my clothes and the equipment for my daily fire ceremony, at my host’s home in London. I had an invitation to come back to them again and would not need all those things in India, so I saved some space and weight by just leaving them there.
Sitting in the plane back to India I was looking back on the month that I had passed in Europe. I had really made a lot of experiences, had seen a lot of new things and had met many nice people. I even had my travel expenses covered by the money that people had given me to thank for lectures, prayers and more. It had been a nice trip and now I was looking forward to come home and tell my family about it
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I know that Indians living in the West have many issues trying to keep their culture alive. Their youth, the ones for whom the migrated parents do it, are not always interested, they want to do what everybody around them does, including the party, the flirting and having boyfriends and girlfriends.Nice to hear that you helped them to find their roots while bring in that life.
Thank you for letting us be part of your life in this way!
Great to take part in your journey in this way. Looking forward to reading about your first trip to Austria where I met you – but I know that was a few years later, so I will have to wait a while. :)Greetings and Love from Austria
it’s sound like it’s my story upside down (I’m actually in India for two months and go back to tell everything about it to my family back home:)