My parents with me in the backyard

Moments of silence on a quiet weekend with birdsong for company urge me to tell this story.

On Amma's first birthday after her passing, October 10th, 2011, the children and planted a Japanese maple in her memory. She'd travelled to Ontario on her own in 2005, three years after surviving chemo and cancer. She'd amazed many at her grit and I'd fought hard to get her visit visa after it was rejected twice by the Canadian High Commission in Mumbai and the Embassy in Dilli- in spite of working full time, and submitting all required paperwork, I'd been deemed unfit to support her for her trip! Anyway she came we went to Quebec City, Prince Edward Island and she dipped her right foot in the Atlantic in memory of Terry Fox. She walked at Unionville for the annual Terry Fox run to support the sister of my co-parent who was undergoing chemo then. She lived with us six months, enjoyed MPL, and then left to go back to Mumbai. Five years later she was gone from the physical world. Every year since it was planted the Japanese maple has soft filigreed red leaves in our backyard. Amma's tree is here and it has a lock of her hair at the base of it, the kids and I planted it together.

I see my Amma in the world around and Pappa in the sunrise- Bhaskar as he was. 

Do not stand by my grave and cry. I am not there, I did not die. 

That's my everyday meditation for them. 

(C) 2014