: These two new guests yesterday were very nice, highly qualified visitors whom we expect to see more of. The husband is C.J. Arunkumar, and the wife is Vasanthi Arunkumar. They are both electronics engineers, and they moved to the U.S. a little over 20 years ago. They have been living in Union City all this time, but never came to an ISKCON temple in this area until yesterday.
They originally hail from Kanchi and Cholapuram in Tamil Nadu, but after getting engineering degrees in India they worked in Finland before coming to the U.S. They have a son and daughter, and the daughter has one son, theiur only grandchild. Their son, 28, lives in San Francisco.
In about 1980, they met an ISKCON swami from India (possibly Gopal Krishna Maharaja?) on a plane, and he advised them to visit the ISKCON temple in Seattle. They visited New Vrndavana in about 1991 and loved it. They have been meaning to get in touch with ISKCON in the Bay Area for many years.
Earlier this year, Vasanthi was laid off, and she is using her extra free time to pursue spiritual interests. Recently she fulfilled a long-term ambition by making a pilgrimage to Mt. Kailash, in Tibet. C.J. came with her and they completed the 56 km parikram in 3 days by foot, staying in tents and braving high altitudes.
They were happy to meet all the friendly devotees are they very eager to read Prabhupada's books. They would like us to have a program at their home to welcome the Bhagavatam set into their home. They also got a BBT art calendar and bead bags with beads from the temple gift store, and they are going to try chanting japa.
They expressed a willingness to go out on a door-to-door book distribution party, but then we spent a long time at the temple showing them the books and bead bags, etc. (it was a late program because of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta's Disappearance Day), and they decided to save that for another day. I think they should come on Harinama on Friday for sure. Please let me know where and when it will be and I will make sure to invite them.
Y.s., Akruranatha dasa
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