Lemongrass Ave.

 Parsley Run.

Photo by Mostafa Agami on Unsplash

 

 

After work and meditation when it’s much cooler to get out, I chance the much anticipated evening walk that occurs only a few times a week. Now it’s almost a daily affair if not for the skies that threaten with dark clouds to unleash a thunderstorm at will. One time it was hot & clear with a smattering of clouds, I strode out merrily only to be pelted with tentative drops of rain two hundred meters out. I beat a hasty retreat back home and it turned into a full-fledged downpour best enjoyed from my balcony. 

 

Today I felt an even more urgent urge to take my walk having discovered I’ve run out of parsley. The urge to get out was even stronger especially after an unhealthy diet of several videos & newsreels of the first presidential debate last night on Sept. 11 in Philadelphia. It was akin to eating too much popcorn at the movies. I just had to get out, despite being out the day before foraging & gorging on local favourites. (Even more reason for parsley diet tonight)

 

I sauntered down the hill and as I turned the corner on Lemongrass Avenue, I came upon the familiar sight of a pretty golden retriever sitting in the middle of the walkway. She was taking an extended breather with tongue hanging out and ignoring her Filipina companion urging her on her leash to move, but to no avail. I, of course couldn’t resist the chance to run my hands & face all over Ginger, an overweight ten year-old golden retriever bitch who reminded me of my own 10-year old golden bitch. My Eleanor was just as pretty but wasn’t as heavy when she was alive a lifetime ago. 

Ginger was still nonchalantly seated on the walkway on her haunches still ignoring the Filipina as we reluctantly parted to continue my brisk walk. 

Further up as I reached the crest of the long avenue past the Lemongrass luxury condo, an unusual sight was approaching, a lady pushing a small-sized open pram with a miniature chihuahua sitting on top enjoying the ride & the view. As we passed I complimented her as I saw it- ‘what an unusual sight!’ I said. She chuckled softly, her chihuahua  sat erect, looking nonplussed. Now that I’ve seen it in real life, it really seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do. Except instead of walking the dog she was walking with the dog riding on a pram. Love certainly knows no bounds. 

 

Feeling a lot lighter after encounters with privileged dogs, I breezed down the avenue, turning left to cross the main thoroughfare teeming with evening traffic crawling up the hill, and bumper-to-bumper traffic going down, broken only by the traffic lights at the T-junction halfway up and down the lengthy hill. I crossed the pedestrian crossing at the lights and made my way to and through the MRT station accessed from lifts at one end, passing across the foyer, to lifts on the other end of the station. The huge lifts were spewing out hordes of office staff & workers like ants spilling onto the narrow foyer and into the station, as I weaved my way into an emptied one. I stepped into a lift that looked like an emptied and discarded milk carton just ravished by a mob. As the lift descended, I smiled mindful of the fact I didn’t once look at anyone in the milling crowd. 

 

The lift door opened to two lines of more people waiting on the ground floor eager to get up to the station. I promptly alighted avoiding bodies or eye-contact slithering silently across the labyrinth of walkways leading to the lifts in the basement of the Pavilion complex. 

The lift delivered me to an interior floor of Pavilion mall, I scamper across the road from the prestigious complex over to a more down to earth DC mall scantily appointed with retail outlets, restaurants, bars and a spacious supermarket called Jaya Grocers. This is my ideal grocery shopping haunt and teatime sanctuary where I get my best teh tarek fix, complemented with delicious nyonya kueh. 

I reluctantly passed on the teh tarek fix but happily acquired some rare nyonya delights for supper.

 

The parsley was sitting pretty in the greens section and I grabbed a pack casually and judiciously thought of objectively leaving having gotten what I needed. But not my wants. 

We all have ten thousand wants and desires, surely satisfying a few more wouldn’t hurt since I’m already here. So being the miser that I am and the carefree wanderer inside, I explored the sections & the aisles spending more time than necessary browsing and debating the necessity of items begging to be bought. The tally in the end; sweet young tapioca leaves (oh so young & sweet, I shall simply sauté them with garlic) tau foo pock (must have in soups), 2-packs of barley (midnite desserts), a packet of Chinese herbs (for cooling the body), a roll of raisin cookies (for teatime), a pack of roasted salted kidney beans (for movies) and half a chicken (for the freezer). Pleased with my selections and my frugality I navigated my way around the well-lit, well appointed, spacious & almost empty supermarket to the checkout counters. The local Malay boys & girls at the checkout are a joy to interact with. They have a quiet, detached but warm reverence in their manner. 

It’s the Malay culture of ingrained gentleness no matter how hard their leaders try to indoctrinate them to hate. 

I then head to the pork and liquor section after paying for my halal groceries. I picked up a packet of back bacon (for breakfast) & contemplated on a bottle of Dewars White label (it was on sale) in the expansive liquor section adjacent to the pork section. 

By the time I was ready to leave it was past 8 and I was already feeling hungry. I reminded myself to be stoic about bodily desires and made my way back. While retracing the path I came, I contemplated the monks’ austere but healthy life and the sadhus of the Himalayas who mastered the cold and hunger for months or even years, I decided that I wouldn’t have to endure extremes to transcend but still I marvel at such super human feats and that mind control is paramount to human endurance and spiritual achievements. I imagine if I could just master my mind in controlling my thoughts, I would have succeeded in attaining a significant level of spiritual wisdom.

I exit the MRT station I had just crossed over from the Damansara Heights town center housing the huge Pavilion complex and the DC -Damansara City complex, to stride half way up the main Maarof Road to the slip road leading up to Lemongrass Avenue. Passing the Bangsar Princess condominium, I pondered the merits of enjoying a dinner of Cantonese fried kway teow at the Venicia housed in the Princess’s back lobby. The ‘wok hei’ of the Kung Fu chau kway teow served in this restaurant is well known. I pondered again. The free library of books shelved in the corner of the main lobby has gifted me many paperbacks of significant authors and titles of many genres over the years. Alexander Dumas, George R.R. Martin, William Boyd, Mark Manson and AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada to name a few authors. The Three Musketeers, The Game of Thrones, Brazzaville, The New Confessions, The Subtle Art of not Giving a Fc*k, and The Science of Self Realization, to name a few books. It’s also been a while since I was last there, maybe gifts of new titles await me. Soon I was sitting down to a dinner of classic Cantonese fried kway teow accompanied by a newly acquired paperback of Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth that was sitting on the community bookshelf destined to be mine. Not a bad decision after all.

What a haul of goodies, groceries, good food and good book for the body and soul. 

Satiated with my meal I shouldered my backpack and walked back, down Lemongrass Avenue once again. I am homeward bound 500 meters away. I greet the friendly Nepali guards at the Lemongrass luxury condo while gliding home on a cloud of serenity into the night still contemplating the bottle of Dewars on sale. 

 

I am blessed.

I love you. Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

I chanced upon a rare gem as I randomly browsed through 'The Essential Gibran' hardback. The only one remaining in my bookshelf of the two copies I purchased from The Strand book store in NYC.

This piece hit me hard in the silence of the night as I read it aloud. 

So hard that I refuse to let it lay idle, lost in the pages of the hardback tucked away in a bookshelf. 

I would prefer it laid out in a post exposed to my little world in my meditations. 

And if only one person were to read and enjoy the sublime beauty it represents, I would be truly happy.

 Yesterday, today and tomorrow. ~ Khalil Gibran

I said to my friend,

    'See her leaning over his arm?

    Yesterday she leaned over my arm'.

And he said:

    'Tomorrow she will lean over mine'.

And I said:

    'See her sitting at his side;

    And yesterday she sat at my side'.

And he said:

    'Tomorrow she will sit at mine'.

And I said,

    'Don't you see her drinking from his cup?

    And yesterday she sipped from mine'.

And he said:

    'Tomorrow she will drink from mine'.

And I said,

    'Look how she glances at him with eyes full of love!

    And with just such love, yesterday she glanced at me'.

And he said:

    'Tomorrow she will glance at me likewise'.

And I said,

    'Listen to her whispering songs of love in his ears.

    And yesterday she whispered the same songs in mine'.

And he said:

    'Tomorrow she will whisper them in mine'.

And I said,

    'Look at her embracing him, and yesterday she embraced me'.

And he said:

    'Tomorrow she will lie in my arms'.

And I said, 

    'What a strange woman she is!!'

And he said:

    'She is Life'.

I love you. Reading and Relationships.

What's the relationship between Reading & Relationships?

If you can approach a relationship the same way you approach reading a book. You will not only succeed but enjoy it tremendously.

Hence the saying; 'you can read a person like a book' 

Doing both well simply requires only one thing - Paying Attention. 

My obsession with books heightened when I spent some time working and travelling with the world's largest retailer of analogue books. I enjoyed every moment of the job. I especially loved the view from my office which overlooked the cavernous book warehouses on the premises. I felt cocooned, coddled, and privileged to be in the presence of millions of books. 

When not in the office, we took the show on the road traversing the region bringing stories, delight, and knowledge to the far reaches of Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, Myanmar, the Middle East, Sabah, Sarawak, Taiwan, Korea, and also throughout Malaysia.

Perhaps the best part of the job was when all the books we ship are finally sorted, catalogued, and displayed in the huge halls we occupy for ten days in each location. I get to feast on the thousands of titles on display and even browse titles of interest and later purchase them for my collection. Also equally delightful is when I get to chat with people of all ages, vocations, and sizes about what's happening in their part of the world. Made many friends and book recommendations that way. 

It must be said that when our book sale comes to town, things get pretty frenetic and even chaotic. 

It is an event much anticipated as no other can bring this many titles at such rock bottom prices. 

Taipei has got to be one of the most intense cities in my experience. This very aggressive Asian economic powerhouse is mainly driven by tiger mums fighting for a better life for their young ones. 

They know it is books that will determine a better life for their future. Especially English books.  

I observe the same sentiment exists in most locations we traverse to.

 

Mothers and parents of this age realize the immense power of analogue books in the digital age. 

Go figure.

On a similar tack, building relationships in the digital age must also harness the power of tangible, physical presence called the human touch. No one can deny that human beings need physical proximity, interaction, and touch. That is what separates us from mere interactions in the virtual space. 

Just as online books and audio editions of books can deliver the message, the printed form takes a physical shape that rests in the palms of our hands. We gently caress the cover and the pages, turning them over and over with our fingers with each page and each chapter, allowing the words to flow from each page of printed ink across the paper transforming the message and meaning into our eyes, through our senses, and into the mind. 

The message sinks in, we sit back and reflect upon the subtlety of the story or severity of the sentence. 

We remember to catch our breath and along with it, the scent of the wood in the paper upon which the entire book was printed. Suitably aroused and intoxicated with the physical ritual with good amounts of dopamine and endorphins produced, we dive in for more. This sequence of love-making to a book can also be applied to that of a lover.

The act of reading a physical book or the act of interacting with a person in person is different from an online experience simply because the online experience restricts communication only to the mind level. Whereas physicality engages our whole being, our human experience is a totally physical one that engages all of our body parts, mind, heart, and life energies.

This is probably what it means to have a human experience with all our sense perceptions. 

What book/s are you reading now? 

Or are you currently in a relationship?

 

Remember... to enjoy them just pay close attention.