She pronounces it SHAWN-te-knee’, and I went to take communion to her 90-year-old mother. Florence was deeply appreciative. Shantini had been in church last Sunday, but did not want to “bother” me with a request to bring the sacrament to her mom, because I was leaving in just a few days.
And so she was very surprised when I unexpectedly showed up on her doorstep.
She was very gracious, accommodating, and in a few minutes was able to help her mother down the steps for communion. We all used the Methodist Worship Book for I had brought three copies with me, and we went through the service for Holy Communion in a home.
Afterwards Shantini and I got into a very interesting discussion about Sri Lanka, as that is the family home grounds. Well, while it may be called Sri Lanka (a Sinhalese name), for hundreds of years, it was called Ceylon. The island (off the SE coast of India), is beautiful, but after having gained independence from England, the two predominant ethnic groups began to undergo civil turmoil. The Tamils who tended to be the more educated, and who coalesced in the north and east, had been the ruling class for hundreds of years. But at independence, the Sinhalese became rulers by sheer force of numbers of ballots at the ballot box, and things began to change precipitously. Ceylon was thrown out, and Sri Lanka (a Sinhalese name) took its place. One day, a decree was suddenly made that the Tamil language could no longer be spoken, and overnight most, if not all, Tamil students were kicked out of universities. The world’s first suicide bombers made their appearance in Sri Lanka.
I had no idea about the turmoil, and wished I had made Shantini’s acquaintance much earlier in my stay to glean more of her perspective. Shantini’s mother kept interrupting her narrative telling her in Tamil that I was a busy man and had other things to do besides learning this piece of obscure history. But I loved it, and I thirsted for more of the Shantini's story. Who knows? Maybe she might have taught me a little of their alphabet--a very distinctive lettering that I've not seen elsewhere.
On another day, Shantini took my partner and me through the Southall section of Ealing—it is like the “Little India” section of London. There one can find a Punjab flavour of India, that very multi-cultural country, and the Southall section conveys a representative flavour of that part. As an example, here is the largest Sikh temple outside of India in Southall. While in Southall, we got some mango,tea, and spices.
Shantini was most gracious, accommodating, and had a very infectious smile and a winsome personality.