Mahantesh

For Christmas Brooks sponsored a child in India in my name and ever since then we’ve been conversing. It is an amazing thing to try and write a letter to a nine-year-old child who lives in a poor village on the other side of the world and try to figure out what sorts of things about your self you should mention. A wonderful exercise in coming to notice yourself. Who are you? Who are you to a non American? Who are you to a human? How do you describe yourself normally? Why do it any different now? Its not that I seek to be disingenuous in any way by putting all this thought into it, quite the opposite. I want to know what I can share that can be translated.
How it works is he hand writes me a letter in his native tongue and then it is sent along with an English translation to me. I read, respond, and the letter is explained to Mahantesh. Brooks said that he picked Mahantesh because he calibrated his photo and found him to be over 500, but I just like trying to communicate on a human level with some one from a totally different background and mental position of consciousness than me.
I want to share our exchange with you because it has been more than rich and fruitful and I am having the best time with it. I sent him some pictures of the farm and the Labyrinth and, well, you can just read for yourself. We’ll consider this a new segment of the blog. I’m just getting ready to send off a response letter, which I include in the end here, and then I’ll let you all know when I hear from him next.

My Dear Mr. Suttle,

With sweet kiss and with greetings a letter from your loving child Mahantesh.

All of us are keeping well by your blessings. I wish you the same.

I am sending my family photo along with this letter. You can see my mother and myself in the photo. My father had gone for work. Hence you cannot see him in the photo.

Two days back I had gone to my aunty’s place to attend the cradle function of her son. Program was very nice. We have named him as ‘Satish’. How many members are there in your family?

Here with greetings I end this letter.

Your loving sponsor child.
Mahantesh

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Dear Mahantesh,

It is so wonderful to begin to get to know you. It is an honor to be able to share what fortune has given my family with you and your family, and it is more amazing that we can come to know each other even when we live halfway around the world from each other.
Currently I live in Columbiana, Alabama, a small town where my parents grew up. I didn’t grow up here though, I grew up in Pasadena, California with my mother and father and brother named Brooks. I lived there until I was 18 years old and then went to school in Dallas, Texas for four years. I graduated from school this time last year and have been traveling around the United States ever since. Most recently I spent the winter in the mountains in Park City, Utah, and then moved down here to my grandparents farm with my brother for the summer. Even though I wasn’t born in this town, I feel like I am from here in a deeper way because it is small and where both my parents grew up. How big is your village/town/city?
My father passed away from cancer in 2001, which is sad and beautiful at the same time. He taught me many things before, during, and after his death, and he is still a strong ally to me in this lifetime. Maybe that is why I love coming back to his hometown to see my grandparents and run wild on the farm so much. When I am down here it feels like he hasn’t gone anywhere. My mother lives in California in the house I grew up in but we see each other often. I have found life is sweeter when you count your blessings instead of your obstacles. It seems strange but death is the greatest way to learn about life. It teaches us how beautiful our waking moments are and helps us learn to grow and appreciate all the little magical things that happen everyday.
I enjoy music and dancing wildly with my eyes closed very much. I have found that with a good imagination and good music it is possible to close your eyes and travel to far off, mysterious places. Do you do that? Do you enjoy playing music? Do you have a favorite song you like to sing to yourself to make you happy when you are sad?
When is your birthday? Your mother is a very beautiful woman, what is her name? My mother’s name is Dawn and my father’s name is Allan.
What is your favorite color? Will you put some of it on your next letter so I can see?
I am sorry if I am writing too much or asking too many questions, don’t worry about answering all of them if you don’t want to. I enjoy sharing what I can with you and don’t know where to begin. I have reason to believe you are a very wise old soul, Mahantesh, and am blessed to try and get to know you all the way on the other side of the world. I hope you are smiling on your side of the world, and if you can think of anything I can do or tell you to make you smile more, please just let me know.
Last summer I built a stone Labyrinth in the woods on my grandparent’s farm here in Alabama (see picture). It is a very sacred place to me. When I am feeling sad or lost I walk it while I meditate and it helps me to feel whole. If you will send me a stone from where you live I will walk it into the middle of the Labyrinth and leave it there in your honor. It will be a way to connect our worlds, and maybe one day, God willing, you can come and walk it yourself.
I pray this letter finds you and your family in good health and good spirits and look forward to our ongoing conversation.

Sincerely,



Cole Suttle
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My dear Mr. Suttle,

With lots of love and best wishes a letter from your loving child Mahantesh.

All of us are keeping well by the blessings of God and by your prayer’s. How are you? How is your health?

I have received your letter / 9 photos sent by you. Your letter was read and explained to me by our social worker. All my family members and myself felt very happy. Thank you very much for your letter.

Photos have come out very nice. All your family members and yourself look very smart. I would like to answer all your questions. Our plae is a backward villiage. Here we have about 200-300 houses. The main occupation is agriculture. Here we have four temples, one primary school, 5-6 tiny shops, 3 borewells, and a well. Roads are not so good. During the rainiy season we feel very difficult. I also enjoy music with my eyes closed as you do. One of my neighbors has a transistor. Sometiem I enjoy by hearing music from it. But I do not know how to play music. When I become very sad, I sing this song, i.e.

Premachandrama kaige segu udiye
Hele tangle hele tangle’

It is from ‘Yajamana’ Kannada movie. I enjoy singing this song. My mother’s name is Sabavva. I have drawn a picture behind this letter and filled it with my favorite green color.

In my further letter I am sending you a stone. My body colour is light black. So, my hands also a little black.

I am waiting for your next letter. Here I end this letter.

Your loving sponsor child.

Mahantesh

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September 12, 2006

Dear Mahantesh,
It was so nice to hear from you and hear that you and your family are doing well. Your drawing of a tree with your favorite color looks like a tree I know of here on the farm in Alabama. I think I will call that “Mahantesh’s Tree,” from now on.
My mother brought your letter over from California to where I have been living on the farm in Alabama and we all read it together. My grandmother saw your picture and thinks you are very handsome. She says, “Hello!”
A lot has happened in our family since I wrote last. My grandfather on my late father’s side passed away here in June. He was blessed enough to spend his last weeks in the home he built on the farm he cultivated for 50 years, surrounded by the family who loves him. He was blessed to move across the void peacefully.
What has made the loss of my grandfather so powerful for me is that he passed away on my twenty-third birthday, June 13th, and we buried him on what would have been his own eighty-ninth birthday, June 17th. We buried him next to my father, his son, auspiciously enough, the day before a holiday we celebrate here called, “Father’s Day.” What better present for father’s day than to be reunited?
Even though we are sad to lose Pop, the experience has brought our family closer together as we remember him together and share our fondest memories. When I walk through the fields, I can feel him and my father all around me and I am at peace.
The other big news in my family is that my older brother, Brooks, is getting married to a wonderful girl named Mollie. Auspiciously enough, Mollie has the same birthday as Pop! Pop got to meet Mollie before he passed on and liked her very much. Everyone is very excited and we are all planning to get together in November back in California for a holiday called “Thanksgiving.” My Grandmother has never been to our home in California and so we are going to take her now that Pop is free.
I have been living on the farm with Grandma helping her adjust to life without Pop for the first time in 64 years. Can you imagine what a shock it must be to be married to someone for 64 years and then not have them around anymore? I do my best to bring youth and life and laughter around the farm to share all I can with Grandma. It has been a wonderful experience for both of us. We are blessed to be able to share the secrets of the elder’s for the secrets of the youth. I see now that the farm and all our memories of it are the physical space that holds our spiritual family together.
I am looking forward to walking your stone into the middle of the Labyrinth. In a way you too are part of our spiritual family and it will be an honor to have a physical, stone-solid connection with you, from earth to earth.
The season is just starting to change here. Summer is over and fall is on the way, the leaves on the trees are beginning to change colors from green to yellow to red and then blowing off in the wind. After they fall down they turn brown and there is a nice crunchy sound under your feet when you walk that makes me happy.
I very much enjoyed the song you sing to yourself to make you happy. I have been working on my pronunciation but have no way to make sure if I’m saying it right or not. I kind of like it that way because I never say it the same way twice. It makes me happy to hear myself try.
I’ve included a few more pictures of what has been going on around here, I hope you enjoy. We went fishing in Montana this summer and that is one of the pictures, as well as a picture of the sunrise and the sunset here on the farm. Which do you like better? Sunrise or sunset?

How is your family doing? What season is it over there? What was the funniest thing that happened to you today?
I have been talking about you to many of my friends and they all send their greetings and wish you well. They are excited we are getting to meet.

May blessings and happiness always find you.
Your loving sponsor
Cole