Bharat family pose on the steps of 91 Mt. Hermon Way, Ocean Grove, NJ. Paul Goldfinger photo © 9/27/15. Click to enlarge.

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger

Ocean Grove, September 27, 2015.

Mr. Parekh Bharat, from Mumbai, India, is spending a month in the U.S. with his wife.  They were in Maryland with their son and daughter-in-law and now they stopped in the Grove for the weekend as they head north to Boston where their daughter and her family live.  Mr. Bharat is from one of the largest cities in the world. He has a business of digitizing documents for schools, libraries, and businesses.  I asked him what the population of Mumbai is. He said, “What do you think? It’s 1 1/2 times the city of New York.”

“20 million,” I guessed.

“You are right,”  he said.   I checked it at home, and it is an impressive town of 22 million.

They found the house at 91 Mt. Hermon Way via the Internet.  This was the first time they were visiting Ocean Grove, and Mr. Bharat said that they enjoyed their stay very much.  They went to the beach, but it was cold and windy today. They also saw the Great Auditorium and other sights around town.

Mr. Bharat was outside with his grandchildren late this morning when they met Stephen Goldfinger, our number one son, who was walking his dog Pooja–a Hindu name.  It means devotion or prayer, but some Indian families name children Pooja.   In addition, Stephen had taken a course at NYU in Hinduism, so they had a nice discussion.

When Stephen returned to our house, one block away, he told me about the Indian family down the block.  Ironically, this morning when Eileen and I  were driving out of town, we spotted the Bharat family ; he was wearing a traditional Indian white suit.  I commented to Eileen, “Isn’t this exciting. I love it when we have diversity in this town.”  A few weeks ago a Korean family had rented a place on Delaware Avenue.

So I went down the block to meet Mr. Bharat and his family.  They all were delighted to discuss their visit to the Grove.  I couldn’t help but speculate that they might be the first Indian family to ever rent a place here. And I was curious, so I asked,  “Did you make Indian food here?” thinking that no one probably ever did that in the Victorian home that they were renting.

“Yes,” he said.   I asked where he bought the ingredients, and he replied that they brought them from India.  Then I asked, “What did you have for dinner last night?”

He replied, “Thai.”

When Stephen told me about the Bharat family, I went into my archives and found an original print of mine, showing Gandhi walking in Union Square Park in New York City.  I signed it and gave him a gift.  He was surprised and pleased, showing the photo to his grandchildren

Below is the photo described above:

Paul Goldfinger photo. Gandhi in the Gandhi Gardens.

Finally the family assembled on the porch for a photo. One of the little boys asked for a Blogfinger card, since I already had given one to Mr. Bharat and his eldest granddaughter.  So I gave him two. I said, “Hold up the card for everyone to see,” and both boys did just that. The Bharat son asked for the web address, and I said, “Blogfinger.net” and as I turned to walk away, one of the boys said, “WWW.blogfinger.net”

I love to post stories and photographs that illustrate the life styles and diversity of our historic town which, at one time, was monochrome but now is multi-media.

MYCHAEL DANNA  (composer of this movie score Monsoon Wedding, my favorite Bollywood film)  “Love and Marigolds.”