Editor Aparigraha Jain
Editor Carla Geerdes
When we arrived, we met downstairs a very charming lady with whom we had a nice talk on this beautiful morning in Kolkata. We were not astonished to meet her at the function, but when thereafter she again was in the lift with us and then invited us from the open doors to come along in her car, we were seeking help and looked at Sushil (yes, he was always near to us!). He laughed as he was reading the concern from our faces, “Yes, go on!”
Aparigraha was asked to get into another car, and Karuna’s face still was question mark like, she was struggling for orientation, while she was getting into the car and sat down near the lady. She tried to find out how it would be possible to go with the lady and be in time where she was awaited. However, she was already adapted enough to enjoy the result.
After some while in the car, the lady took gently her hand and asked while shaking her head, “OK?” In fact, Karuna did not feel well and could not lye to these eyes full of compassion. Then the lady made the gesture of sleeping with her hands and her head and pointed forwards with an encouraging smile.
When we arrived, the others also descended from the car! Karuna learned that the lady was Mrs. Parakh, mother of Mr. Sushil Parakh and mother-in-law of Mrs. Munju Parakh, in worldly terms sister of Samani Pratibha Pragyaji, who had invited them. They live together in a joint family, which was about to extend as the son of Sushil and Munju Parakh would move in with his wife after aggrandisement work of the apartment would be finished.
In their apartment, we had nice talks together; Mr. Sushil Parakh disappeared, came back, disappeared... He is broker and time before lunch is the busiest time for him, as London stock market opens then. Mrs. Munju Parakh was busy in the kitchen and Sushil, Supyar and Karuna had tea with senior Mrs. Parakh and the kids, daughter and son, who arrived one after the other to welcome us.
Aparigraha used the opportunity to continue his studies of the camera’s manual. He was newly equipped for the tour and desperately looked for instructions to change the adjustment of the camera when taking photos indoors. New digital cameras are almost like computers nowadays and the manual was very voluminous.
Meanwhile Karuna’s thoughts were returning increasingly to senior Mrs. Parakh’s offer to relax a little. When her eyes met, senior Mrs. Parakh nodded and her granddaughter led her to a sleeping room. There she felt very cold and with slight signs of astonishment the young girl put off air-condition. When Mrs. Munju Parakh came in to tell that lunch was ready, she was wondering why the room temperature was so high.
All our friends made us taste their specialities, and we understand why there are only few (we only know the excellent and easy to follow one by Pramodhaji Chitrabhanu) cookbooks for Jain meals. The reason is that every housewife creates her own specialities according to the likes of her family. As all are doing so, no need of a cookbook. Whoever reads this and is ready to share her knowledge with us, we would follow her cooking recipe and give feedback to her.
This was only to make clear that we were so much pampered by our friends that we miss it now. As guessed easily, we again had an excellent meal!