Deja Vu and a Woman Named Susanna

Today’s walk through the Madras Fort was eerie. It touched a place inside my brain that I don’t think has ever been touched; and, as I walked around the Fort in wonder I felt as though I had done this once before. I felt like I used to go to the church for solace and that I knew all the colonial buildings within the Fort walls. As I looked at all the Indian people dwelling within those walls I felt as though I knew that nothing had changed in hundreds of years. It was an eerie deja vu type feeling.

One British lady I met (Susanna) talked about incarnations and deja vu a lot and how there is so much in this world that we do not understand. Susanna is a remarkable lady for her openness and hospitality. She has grace and poise and everything to her was “marvellous.” Susanna wore a silk scarf around her neck like she was a queen and from what I gathered she was in India learning about singing. While in Bombay singing for people she met a man in a restaurant and they instantly knew each other. This is how we breached the subject of incarnation.

I would like to have the same grace as Susanna when I am 52. She said she had done it all. She had seen India married, single, divorced, and that she was here to see it again. She wasn’t afraid to take a second class ship to small little islands. She wasn’t afraid to talk to anyone and she certainly wasn’t afraid of being alone. It was an absolute joy to be around Susanna with her flowing scarves and jangling anklets. She taught me something new when she spit on her mosquito bites to make them stop itching.

After leaving Madras I wish I had taken a moment to tell Suzanna how much I admired her. Our meeting was entirely too brief; though I think I will meet her again on this journey.