CBC BOOK CLUB

Dahanu Road has been chosen for the CBC's Studio One Book Club. Hosted by the lovely Sheryl MacKay, and broadcast on her show North by Northwest, I'll be discussing the novel and its colourful inhabitants May 31st. I did my first ever interview with Sheryl MacKay after my play The Matka King was workshopped at the Arts Club Theatre in 2002. The play is set in the red light district and has a eunuch as the main character; when my granny heard the interview back home she said to me over the phone: "You spoke about the brothels so well! Congratulations!" She passed away the next year, but I do hope she shows up for the Dahanu Road discussion. My granny loved to drink. There's a lot of whiskey in the novel, and very little whiskey, I assume, in heaven.

ZOROASTRIAN SYMBOL ON TOTEM POLE IN OTTAWA

A recent article in India's Zoroastrian weekly, the Jam-e-Jamshed, caught my attention:

"Each figure on the Totem Pole represents a symbol, which the Native people believe is very meaningful to their culture and traditions. The highest honour is given to the Zoroastrian religion, which is depicted with the engraved figure of the 'Asho Farohar.'"

That's the winged angel right at the top.

As I had mentioned in one of my earlier entries, the fravashi (Asho Farohar) encourages a humen being's soul to take rebirth on Earth and acts as a guiding force. Rebirth is something I naturally believe in. No matter how much we advance technologically, as a race we regress when it comes to what really matters. Humility, compassion, courage -- we seem to need lifetimes to understand, let alone master, these. In this life, if I get even one of these right, I'll consider myself a success.

A COCONUT GROVE BY THE BEACH

Sometimes I'd come on my motorcycle and just stand here, watch the trees move. It's a very calming place, one of those spots where no people are visible. There's a line in the book: "The branch of a coconut tree reached for him, and their leaves always made him think of large eyelashes..." I'd wait here a few minutes and the moment a car or motorycle passed by, the stillness was broken and it was time to move on. Just one of those patches of earth you wish you could carry with you when you move to another country.