To obtain a free copy of the entire calendar, go to www.geocities.com/daveauss Kali and Shiva It was a strange coincidence when I met Sharma, who owned an Indian restaurant called Mr Tandoor next door to our Sintezza's Gypsy Cafe, as he had a large painting of Shiva hanging on his restaurant wall and we had a small statue of Kali on the shelf.
I learned a bit from Sharma about Shiva and he was always wanting to know what made me and other Romanies believe in Kali.
He was fascinated with the fact that after a thousand years, Romanies still carry with them a Hindu goddess.
We became friends with Sharma and talked to each other about our different cultures and how there are still similarities.
Like with the language, some words are still the same, like bibi for aunt, kako for uncle, or ava for yes and nai for no or miri phen my sister.
Sharma felt sad when he saw that the public didn't want to understand Romanies and read our literature.
He saw that we had plenty of literature in the cafe, but only a few would be open to the wisdom of the Romanies.
Sharma closed his restaurant after we left and went back to Punjab maybe counting himself lucky that he still had his homeland and sad for us because we didn't have a land of our own.
Instead, we feel the need to live in peace with nature, love our families, listen to the wisdom of the old ones, carry on using our education for the good to help the others and respect the earth and what's put on it, not try to destroy it.
It can only prove that we see further and are a wonderful culture that has been misunderstood for far too long.
This Calendar is for anyone who wants to see beyond and let the positive energies guide them in the right direction, to see the truth and be in peace with us and for Romanies to help us openly celebrate our culture every day in the months of the whole year.
