February/March/April 2016
by Carolyn Neogi - 14:30 on 01 May 2016
We had quite a busy few months in Spring. Unfortunately our India trip was cancelled but we filled in the time with local activities.
February started with a very well-attended meeting by Guildford & Godalming Interfaith Forum 'REFUGEES – Faith Perspectives' when friends of different Faiths, mostly themselves refugees, spoke about their experiences coming to the U.K. from Nazi Germany, Amin’s Uganda, Palestine & South Africa and/or their Faith teaching’s on welcoming the stranger. Later in the month we visited the Armenian Church in Kensington with Elmbridge Multifaith Forum, where Carolyn had attended a wedding in the late 60s of friends from her Paris years. We enjoyed a talk about Armenia and their Church, and refreshments at the adjoining Rectory. We also had a flurry of Bahá’í activities during this period…
We also returned to the Isle of Wight for the first time since selling Mum & Dad’s home in Ryde 10 years ago, to attend the funeral of a dear Iranian friend. We enjoyed being back on the Island with Bahá’í friends who had known Mum and Dad, and we had a lovely lunch together reminiscing and looking through Marzieh’s albums and press cuttings of all the past activities on the Island...
In March we met up with one of Bibhas’ nephews who had come from Mumbai to visit the Tata factory in Port Talbot, and cousin Robi, attended the 50th Birthday party of Donna, the trainee vicar, of whose support group Carolyn is a member, Woking Debates group' s ‘The World in 2030’ where a WATER AID friend spoke about the issues facing us in reaching the worldwide goals of clean water and hygiene education in the face of all the wars and destruction, and the AGM of Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum both of which were fairly well attended.
Carolyn also attended a short course on Indian Temples at Guildford Institute.
Later in the month we had the Bahá’í Naw Ruz party, again near Woking, and the Ahmadiyya Peace Symposium at the Morden Mosque, always an impressive occasion, and Bibhas went to a Holi spring festival with Bengal Engineering College Alumni. Our friend Clare arrived that day and spent Easter weekend with us, joined by two friends who also knew her from Cyprus, leaving her at the Convent in Notting Hill where her sister had lived, for her last two days in U.K.
Soon after that it was time to go back to Cyprus! Bibhas had planned to go alone for a maintenance visit but as the India wedding had been called off Carolyn decided to go as well, and we met up with several ‘part-time’ Cypriots like ourselves as well as the wonderful local Bahá’ís. We had to leave after two weeks as we’d decided to go to National Convention in the U.K. this year rather than the Cyprus one we’d attended for many years. This took place in Chorley, Lancashire, and it was lovely to catch up with friends there, especially those from’the North’ who we don’t often see these days as we tend to go to Regional Summer Schools in Wales or Northern Ireland rather than the big English ones which we find rather over-whelming these days
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