Is it by chance or was it meant to be? I left work an hour early feeling tired and hungry. I walked to the stop lights at Beatty and Nelson to find police barricading all intersections along Nelson Street. Something was up and I knew some one important was about to drive by. I had a hunch and it turned out to be true. Slowly gliding along was a black sedan with a man dressed in those stunning colours of crimson and canary sitting in the back seat. The man leaned forward looking out the window and waved his hand to me. I was ready for this and I waved back with a massive grin. Yep, it was the 14th Dalai Lama, waving to me personally, like he knew me. Of course he doesn't but he has this ability to care for all living things and takes the time to show it. He doesn't have to do it but he puts forth the time and energy even for something small like waving to strangers. Did he know, I knew it was him coming down the street and that I was waiting for him? I don't know, but I was left with that same peace I felt a day or two earlier. After he passed and the police went there way, I walked across Nelson street thinking how remarkable it was that I just happened to be there at that moment to have a small interaction with the Dalai Lama.
"City of a Thousand"....a thousand massed warriors of Andrianjaka, a thousand Renault 4 taxis whine up and down the cobbled hills, a thousand purple jacaranda trees blaze into life all over the city raining nectar on to the heads of skipping children and strolling couples. A thousand terracotta mansions with wooden balconies and tiled roofs stacked on to the hillsides turning gold in the setting sun, a thousand paddy fields glint in the pale light forming endless chequered patterns of green and brown....this is Antananarivo.
