AKEMI- Bright and Beautiful

On my way to the gym, a familiar voice stopped me,'Hey, how are you?' .'Ya, I am fine, ' I climbed to the stairs of my neighbour 's apartment Mrs. Akemi. She was looking after her two grandsons, playing around. 'Saw you after, so many days, are you busy?' she asked. 'No, not really.' I said. 'Oh, great, then why don't you join for a lunch tommorrow at my home?' I thought for a while and said,'Its great.' 'I know you are a vegetarian' She said.She asked futher,'Do you have fish and eggs?' I said..' No, please!' Oh...then ,'Do you drink Milk?' I said ,'Yes'. I told her, I too will bring Chappati and Indian Bhaji/ Curry. She was happy to know that. Then I bid good-bye to her, confirming the lunch time as 12:30 p.m.


Doing my workout, I was just pondering its really very difficult to have a vegetarian/ nonvegetarian criteria....Milk too is an animal product, so are many as derived from it. So the argument about what to eat and what not to eat, is just difficult to solve. Moreover its an individual's perspective to the phrase,'Thou should eat to live, not live to eat.'


The next day, I rang the door bell of Mrs. Akemi. She opened the door, ' You look nice, today.' She greeted me, then introduced me to a fair, thin lady her daughter Hayate. I told her,'I would serve you Chappati hot,' and demonstrated them the method to make it. 'Oh!! it looks nice, is it similar to Naan?' asked Hayate.'Not totally,' I said.


We sat for the lunch.,'Do you pray in Hindus.' she asked me. I said,' Ideally yes, but we don't rigorously follow it.' So we prayed and it was a peaceful moment before we started to eat. The dining table was decorated with different vegetarian Japanese recipes. I started to taste each of them. The beans soup, a beautiful looking small wrap of cucumber and rice (Sushi), mushrooms with garlic sauce, boiled broccoli with pepper and salt, fried okras, onions and carrots dipped in rice flour (Like indian bhajjis). Everything was just perfect. I just couldn't resist using thin beautiful chop-sticks, but later on preferred the forks!!! 'Hey, How to eat this Chappati and the vegetable?' asked Hayate,' You can make a wrap of vegetable in the chappati and have it,' I said.'Wow!!your Indian food is so delicious, we like it!!'came their reply. I was relieved. The Japanese cold tea served, instead of water was the best soft drink i ever had!


The little grandson, suddenly started crying. 'May be, his sleeping time'. said his mother.Mrs. Akemi gave me a big, fat, brown, thick album from the shelf which was overloaded with books, She said,'You can see it, till I make him sleep.' Sitting in a reclining chair, I was amazed to see the photographs of pre-school children playing games, performing dance, balley, dramas,different gymnastic games, camping, visting parks, aquariums, celebrating Mother's day......now my mind was full of infinite questions....!!



Then came Mrs. Akemi.' You are just a wonderful person, how did you manage to do this?' I asked. She with a smile which exaggarated, the wrinkles on her face said,' I was a Principal in a Missionary school ,at Colorado, we catered a child who was 100days old to 5 years old, their parents worked in different parts of world, so we were their care-takers 24 by 7. We had more than 150 children, a dedicated teaching staff and caretakers.' 'Its just a herculean task' I appaluded. ' Moreover, I could read only happiness and joy on the face of each child in the snaps, I just wondered how is it possible parenting all those children so well???


She smiled and said,' I am a nurse by profession, I worked in Japan, but after I came in USA, 36 yrs back, with my husband, I couldn't practice nursing, as my English was poor and to appear for exams, we didn't have enough money.I was more interested in doing some religious work, so slowly I became an active member in my church and the work grew leaps and bounds.' I asked her,' Was your husband fine with it?' She said,' Ofcourse, he was very supportive. You know I lost him 18 years back, due to sudden heart attack, but he is still with me.' I was just surprised by the last statement... she continued saying,' He has guided me, since then.. we believe in eternal and true love..I see him, when I need him, he advises me, I can feel, he is patting on my back.' I said,' I am not able to believe this, its just impossible.' She was confident and said,' We all have a spiritual eye, but gradually we all are losing it, its my own true experience.'



I just didn't know what to say, like any science graduate person, its difficult for me to believe this, but I do respect her intimate feelings which were TRUE. I asked her,' What are you doing now?'She replied,' I am working for United Nations, doing humanitarian work in South America. I have visited North Korea too, its a real communist country, where you can just think of FREEDOM, in your mind, can never enjoy it.' She continued saying,' I was staying in a hotel, there was no ventilation, so I switched on the ceiling fans, but they were not working, I called the hotel manager and asked him to do the needful.' He said,' No, I cannot do that, during ,the bright day light the government switches off the electric supply of the country, to save energy and is available only during night.' So that's the reality in other parts of world!!



Suddenly came the cry of baby, he just woke up.....now she is a busy grandma, the whole day. Thanking her,I told,' I shall leave now.' On her insistence I packed some of her delicacies for Lalit too.


Opening the door of my home, I realised my mind too has opened to lot of avenues, I never thought of ! A simple lady with her beautiful mind has changed the life of so many people.That's what behind her Japanese name-Akemi=Bright and Beautiful stands for.There are many factors which bring people together, but I never thought 'FOOD' is one of them. For me, now it stands for fostering a beautiful relationship with other human mind!!