Fra: Lalitha Brodie (lalitha.brodie7@hotmail.com)
Sendt: 22. mars 2010 03:00:25
Til: Shan Nalliah (shanmugappirabunalliah@hotmail.com)
Hello Shan,
How are you? Yes! I must write my story in English now - Do you listen to Konesh's International Tamil radio - ITR 24 Hour Radio in Norway? You can listen to my voice on www.tamil.fm at 6.30 pm every Sunday for 28 minutes. You can google Lalitha Brodie and get everything.
Trust you and your family are fine.
love
Lalitha Brodie
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From: lalitha.brodie7@hotmail.com
To: garvia.bailey@cbc.ca
Subject: FW: Please help to publish my poem in The Globe & Mail during this Multicultural Week In Toronto
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:50:12 -0400
Lalitha Brodie Marh 17, 2010
4132 Starlight Crescent
Mississauga
ON L4W 4R3
Hello Ian Brown,
How are you? I am sure you will remember meeting me at one of your readings at Toronto Reference Library a few years ago.
I am still the only Asian writer with the Older Womens Network - OWN Writers Group and I read this poem written on a random word 'WANT' to them this Tuesday.I am herewith attaching my biography and another poem on the random word 'Affirmation' for your information - you can know more about me if you google my name please.
I will be most grateful if you would please help to publish my poem during this multicultural week -At 76, I am a veteran bi-lingual writer www.vlambaram.com and still broadcast over 24 hours ITR- International Tamil Radio -www.tamil.fm and my program starts every Sunday at 6.30 pm.
With best wishes
Yours Sincerely
Lalitha Brodie
Tel: 905 270 1214
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WANT
In retrospect, I realize that
almost every wish of mine
in life has mostly come true.
In arid Jaffna, when I was nine
how thrilled I was to pick up
a tiny pink carnation bud
from the discards of flowers
received for the College Prize-giving.
It was fulfilled, this want of mine
decades later, when I cultivated
my own carnations on estates
in the tea carpeted verdant hills
for sale to expensive Colombo florists.
In Grade Five, I map-marked America's great lakes
never realizing that I will live by lake Ontario now.
I admired many English and Tamil writers.
and in my old age, I am a bilingual published writer.
The famous honey-laden Kurinji flower
blooms only once every twelve years.
It blossomed in 1970 in Agrapatna hills,
the bees built hives all over our balcony
and workers jungle trekked to collect honey.
I always regretted that I never got down
the rare Kurinji flowers for me to see them.
As I write these lines, I just googled
and Internet reveals the bell-shaped blue Kurinji
in all its glory, satiating that want of mine too
Our life does unfurl according to our thoughts
and our heartfelt wishes usually materialise.
However, some things do remain inexplicable.
It is indeed tough to change the norms
of our Sri Lankan lifestyle inbred in my veins!
I find that I am yet rather reluctant to confess
that I want to heal the cracks in my relationships
and hope I will succeed before my departure.
I really want to know the truth and answers
for the eternal unanswered qustions
of the mystery and purpose of our life on earth.
I do also want to know why my Tamil community
that lost thousands of innocent civilians
plus a whole generation of our youth
these three decades in the ethnic conflict
continues to still suffer so much
even after the war is over, persecuted
ruthlessly as displaced refugees
in their own land and imprisoned
without trial in crowded camps
by the despotic State of Sri Lanka,
without even a glance from World Leaders.
During this multicultural week in Toronto
global media blares loud about the need
to close zoos and set captive animals free!
What about the urgent need to set free
the human captives languishing so long
without freedom in State camps of Sri Lanka?
Lalitha Brodie
March 16, 2010
Tel: 905 270 1214
----------------------------------------------
AFFIRMATION
Though Hindu by birth, as a spiritual seeker,
I delved into several faiths and religions.
Instinct confirms the presence of God
like the pervasive power of the unseen wind.
Manmade religions, surging rivers seeking
to merge into the common sea of bliss,
The Divine, that One Omnipotent Power
that is God who so skillfully orchestrates
this vast kaleidoscope of the whole cosmos
with such precision and glorious grandeur.
I realize that I too am a tiny part
of that Whole. I have no name or form
for my creator now and believe
that when in tune, God's power and grace
always envelops helps and guides me.
However, I cannot understand why my people languishing in camps in Sri Lanka
along with others worldwide,
continue to be oppressed by the heartless Powers?
Even if it is karma, surely there
should be some peace with justice!
Where is God? How can
He/She permit such atrocities?
I know some atheists who are most caring
and lead exemplery lives.
At times this makes me ponder whether
I am just blindly following the flock with my belief
in the existence of the Power that is God!
But when I retrospect and scan my life,
memory pictures flash forth,
vivid as ever in my minds eye. . .
From age 26 to 46, twenty years of Venus rule
in my horoscope did elevate, bestowing my family
a better life on Demodera Group,
the 3000 acre largest tea estate in Sri Lanka.
My daughter married well, our sons went abroad
one by one, my burdens were eased and material me, miraculously gained free access to books
quite unexpectedly in the seventies,
to nurture my spirituality which led
to the first of my nine Puttaparthi pilgrimages
when we were quite broke!
On another trip, I lost my handbag with all essentials,
help arrived from every corner,
restoring my confidence and faith in God.
However, I could not still my mind to meditate
though I tried so hard, but in 1983
started my trek with the mantra of Mahesh Yogi's
TM meditation. I who loved meat
and fish became a total vegetarian,
broke all rules and tasted different
methods of meditation.
As I progressed, I received all what
I needed and could always feel
God's guiding hand on my shoulder.
I almost died and was unconscious three days
in Colombo Accident Intensive Care with swollen head,
arm and eight ribs fractured and a collapsed lung,
when a minivan knocked me down
at a crossing in 1991, but I did arise
with all my faculties intact!
From 1992 in Canada, I grasped opportunities,
broadened my vistas and am grateful
to be what I am today. Though I am
five inches shorter with severe osteoporosis,
a crooked spine with both shoulders
and wrists fractured, I have minimal pain,
my mind is sharp and I still manage
to cope pretty well at seventyfive!
I am ashamed of my floundering fickle faith
and this reluctance to accept life
as it unfolds around me
that from time to time, I seem
to need this affirmation
that the You do exist
and reign supreme my dear God!
Lalitha Brodie
October 2009
---------------------------------
BEAUTY
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever!
Beauty does emanate from
such different facets of life.
Fluttering butterflies, frolicking lambs
fields of flowers, flitting fireflies,
the glint in a loved ones eyes,
a baby's smile, sunset painted skies
the passion of the orator
the lithesome grace of the dancer
the piety that springs forth
from the melodious singer's voice
gently invading and captivating me. . .
However, why is beauty is so fleeting
as change always distorts and destroys
every single material thing in the cosmos?
Isn't there anything that can remain
beautiful perpetually to spread eternal joy?
Why not? Our emotions can imprint
moments of infinite beauty
in our mind's eye and immortalize
them in countless ways.
The outpouring of selfless love
in the spoken and written word
the lilting melody of an instrument
the soul stirring voice of the singer
the vivid portrayal of an actor
the superb performance of a maestro
do etch lovely memories in our minds.
The Sathya Sai Global 'Ahandanama Bhajan',
the annual 24 hours of devotional singing
heralding Guru Sai Baba's 84 th birthday,
was on 7nth Nov. Saturday 6 pm to Sunday 6 pm.
As I entered the Toronto Mandhir that Sunday
the throb of the pulsing spiritual vibrations
created by the fervent faith and devotion
of so many singers both young and old
did engulf and envelop me with such force,
nurturing and elevating my awareness
that I literally staggered under this experience
filled with God's love, grace and beauty.
By:
Lalitha Brodie.
----------------------------------
Lalitha Brodie: no time to slow down
Lalitha Brodie wears many hats and although she is a proud Canadian citizen, her Sri Lankan roots continue to inspire her life amongst the Tamil community here. Some of her five children live in England and Sri Lanka. She has 11 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She and her husband Rajah Brodie, now retired, came to Canada as landed immigrants in 1992, fleeing their troubled country. They joined two of their four sons.
Although she has never been a wage earner, her life has been dedicated to her many causes and working interests. She speaks three languages - Tamil, Sinhalese and English. Right now, she is assistant editor to the bilingual quarterly magazine Mental Wellness for Tamils, published by Charitable Universal Community Help. She is also a director of Omkara Spiritual Vedanta Centre.
Educated in Sri Lanka, Lalitha received a diploma in psychological counseling in Jaffna in 1987. She was co-founder of the Association for Health & Counselling Shanthiham associated with The Teaching Hospital in Jaffna.
During much of that period, she also expanded her involvement in her war-ravaged country to become president of the Selva Refugee Camp, which housed over 1,000 refugees from Trincomalee; and was president of a Mothers' Front in Chundikuli, Jaffna. Always a seeker on a spiritual path, Lalitha has traveled to puttaparthi India nine times: from 1992, she has been the only Tamil member of Sukiyo Mahikari, a global spiritual organization based in Japan.
Although five inches shorter in stature due to severe osteoporosis, Lalitha commands attention, bringing out from her various bags mounds of material connected with her various enterprises.
Last year, Ahilan Associates published her second book, Peace with Justice - poems that vividly portray her life and feelings about Sri Lanka, what has happened to her, her family, other Sri Lankans and people who have been important on her journey. She hopes her writing will inspire other Asian woman to join, as she has, a feminist organization – the Older Women's Network - "and reap rewards of all OWN activities, along with wings for their words."
UNITY IN DIVERSITY
Traveling the Toronto TTC
With passengers of a multicultural flare
I daily marvel at the well synchronized harmony
Evident everywhere …
Currently, she is working on another book. Although Lalitha regrets that she did not start writing earlier, she says it is rewarding that she is now a well-recognized broadcaster/telecaster, and writes extensively in both Tamil and English. According to International Tamil Radio, her broadcast influence reaches beyond the Tamil community to the mainstream.
Lalitha says her Tamil articles on individual personal growth in bi-monthly Vlambaram "seem to touch the hearts of many and bring pleas for counseling/referral."
Despite her age - she is in her mid-70s - Lalitha shows no sign of slowing down. Like other successful people, she knows the value of networking. She is involved with OWN's Creative Writing Group, with whom she shares her work in progress. She acknowledges that these women give her both practical guidance and friendship.
Dawn Hembling, chair of OWN's Creative Writing Group, acknowledges Lalitha's lifelong advocacy for women of all nationalities and all ages, and admires her tireless work and her courage in putting down her thoughts in her writings and poetry.
By
Anne Farrel
For www.coolwomen.org now www.section15.org) Past Chair Older Womens Network, Writer/Poet & and News Reporter
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