This story comes from Tabby Biddle of Santa Monica, California.
In 1998, I was walking down the street in Delhi, India to visit a group of Tibetan hunger strikers who wanted to gain attention from the United Nations. On my way I passed by a Tibetan woman holding an 8×10 picture of a young man. She had a sign behind her explaining in English that her son was making a film about Tibetan folk music, had traveled to Tibet to work on it, and was thrown in jail by the Chinese and sentenced to 18 years.
This story touched me immediately. How horrible for this to happen to this young man and his mother. I stopped to talk with her. She did not speak English, but had a piece of paper someone had written for her in English which told me more of the story and asked that I sign a petition for her son’s release. I signed the petition, empathized with her, gave her my best wishes for her son’s release, and said good-bye.
Six months later I was living in London and working for the Free Tibet Campaign. The first assignment given to me was to escort a Tibetan woman who was flying over from India. She was getting visas so she could travel to Europe and tell her story to government leaders. The story she had to tell was about her son who had been unjustly thrown into prison by the Chinese on a trip to Tibet. He was making a film about Tibetan folk music. This was the same woman I met on the street in Delhi just months before.
Five years later I was living in New York and I was attending a concert of Tibetan music. I brought a friend who was new to Tibetan culture and I was telling her about some of my experiences. I told her the story of the Tibetan fellow who was thrown into jail on a visit to Tibet to make a film about Tibetan folk music. Just after I said those words, I opened up my music program and saw his name listed as one of the performers! Oh Wow, he is free! He is out of jail! I was excited to hear him perform and perhaps even talk to him, but the concert started an hour late and I had to leave. I didn’t get to hear or see him that night.
Three months later I was attending a talk at the Tibet House in New York. After the talk, people were mingling. I walked by this man and a big “hello” popped out of my mouth as if this man were an old good friend. After I passed him, I realized I didn’t actually know him. He seemed so familiar. It dawned on me that this was the musician who had been imprisoned. I had only seen one picture of him – and this was the picture his mom was holding of him on the street in Delhi taken of him probably ten years earlier.
We talked. I told him how happy I was that he was free. I told him about meeting his mom (twice). He told me that he was still working on the film. We met the next week and he showed me the work he had done so far.
Three years later I was living in Los Angeles. I received an email from him saying that he was living in Los Angeles for a short while to work on his film. I wondered how he knew I had moved out here. We met for dinner. Although we had only met through two brief encounters, we connected quickly and became fast friends.
I wonder whether karma ties us to certain people, that no matter what, we will meet.
