My elevator encounter
Now we have come back to Cancún for the second time. This place is so beautiful. I am happy we came back.The other day I was in the elevator together with a stout, elderly man.
He asked, “Do you speak Spanish?”
I said, “No.”
He went on, “Where do you come from?” I replied, “India.”
He asked, “May I ask you where?”
I told him, “I come from Chittagong.” Then I asked him where he came from.
He said, “I come from Chicago.”
He began joking with me that he did not know where Chittagong is.
I said, “It is not in Ill.”
He said, “What do you mean — ill?”
I said, “It is not in Illinois. The abbreviation I am telling you.”
When I used to work at the Indian Consulate, how many times I used to write Chicago and then “Ill.” I would put the passport inside the brown envelope and then write down the name of the Indians in Chicago, Ill.
What is the great similarity between Chicago and my disciples? Unpredictable weather! Chicago’s outer weather is unpredictable, and the disciples’ inner weather is also unpredictable.
— 13 January 1998, Cancún, Mexico
