Empireslastcasualty2

  MANILA, PHILIPPINES Sachi G. Dastidar             We wanted to visit Philippines, one of several nations full of Islands, for some time. Many plans changed because of Covid. However, our earlier plans of visiting her southern Mindanao Island to northern Luzon Island was cut short with Manila and its nearby places. It seems accidentally Philippines completed our 2023 year of travel in island nations – from Aruba in the Caribbeans in March to Hawaii Islands in the Pacific in April to Aegean Sea in the Mediterranean in July to Singapore to Indonesia to the Philippines in August,   But, traveling to Bali where I was robbed and the Philippines was stressful because of the robbery. Nevertheless, travel in Manila was fine as people were quite close to Western protocol. Map of Manila             Our New York Philippine neighbor told us many times how Manila and New Y...

  Partition Casualty and Its Restoration: With Mother’s Blessing  on  August 18, 2023,   Energizes an Oppressed Community in Bangladesh, Rebuilding Its 1700s Destroyed Shrine By Sachi (Sabyasachi) Ghosh Dastidar               While visiting Laklshmankathi in Bangladesh in September of 2022, the ancestral land of our indigenous families, several villagers led by P Debi came running, saying Uncle Kaku, could you please fix our destroyed shrine – temple – of Mother Kali, the famous Black Mother who protected our families by destroying the demons? This rocked our soul! It is said that our ancestors built the village in 1500s when Bengal was ruled by a Persian (Iranian) Islamic ruler who sought our ancestors help for governance or finance, and because of their help Persian king honored the family with “Dastidar” honorific title that many descendants added to their last name. One of the ancestors lef...