An old friend of mine, Bhanu, had had given me this amulet more than twenty years ago, I had rediscovered it a months ago and asked her to tell me how she came to have it in her possession.
She told me of her trip to India in 1990 where she had agreed to meet her mother, after refusing her requests to return to England, the country of her birth, after a long absence. She met her mother and stayed with her relative before taking off for the remainder of her trip travelling by herself. She had found the amulet in the especially beautiful city of Mysore, a city she said …‘that really touched me, unlike many others’. Walking the streets of a main road she noticed a woman sitting on the ground, her legs folded, amongst a pile of objects.
“The Kavacha (amulet) immediately spoke to me, I could see that it had been worn by someone… something about it… a treasure to take back to Melbourne”
She told me of how she had given me the amulet knowing that I too would treasure it. She still remembers the woman sitting there with her head covered by a Sari some 24 year later.
What she didn't know is that that trip would be the last time she saw her mother, despite her promises to return home, her mother passed away before she was able to make the journey.