Keisha Castle-Hughes and her Hollywood team gets the mercy!
Drumila Dasa: It was either earlier today, or yesterday, when I was driving alone in my van and an old movie from 2002 popped into my mind. It was one of the most spiritual and uplifting movies that I ever saw, without it containing Krishna Conscious subject matter. A young 13-year-old ‘Keisha Castle-Hughes http://www.keishacastlehughes.com/ 'was it’s star, and was later nominated for an Academy award in the 'Best Actress’ category. The movie itself 'The Whale Rider’ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_Rider won an astounding 32 out of 33 wins for major film awards. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298228/awards?mode=desktop
I was thinking, about how her amazing acting made me cry. How I should let a few of my devotee friends know about it. This happened just this morning while driving in my car or perhaps it was yesterday.
So today while collecting laxmi for 'Food for Life’ and distributing books, I happened upon a group of about eight people. Three of them went ahead, five of them stopped to hear me. I had a great time with all of them. I had a special rasa (relationship) with the dark-haired girl with the Jaganatha hat. Something about her stood out to me. By this time the other three came back to see what was going on.
After finishing up with my presentation, and handing everyone books, one of them, Jackline, a girl, said a wonderful thing to me. She said, “You’re a very special person, who brings a lot of joy to people’s lives.’
I thanked her for such a nice complement.
Then I asked all of them if they would like to take a picture, holding their books? I told them that I would put them on my Facebook page. They all agreed. First though I wanted to get all of their names. Actually in my mind I almost rejected the idea, because there were so many of them. But then I decided I would get each individual name. Here comes the fun part.
I had actually asked the dark-haired girl with the Jagannatha hat, where she was from, as I thought I heard an Australian accent earlier. She said she came from New Zealand. I did a funny impersonation of a New Zealand person’s accent to her and she laughed. Anyway as I went down the line of persons, I finally came to her and asked her what her name was. She said it was Keisha. I spontaneously said, "There was an actress from New Zealand named Keisha who starred in the movie called 'The Whale Rider.’ All her friends immediately with hand gestures motioned towards her direction, indicated that this was her, the actress who starred in the movie 'The Whale Rider!’
I couldn’t believe it. I burst out saying you are Keisha?! You’re her!? Sure enough, as I looked at her I recognized her. It made sense to because three of the other people in the group were actors and actresses. Long story short, Keisha got every book I had, three different ones in all, and her friends said she is really into subject matter like this, so those books were perfect for her. Notice, she picked the Jagganatha hat also!
The man named Jimmy donated on everyone’s behalf. He is the cameraman. The other girl with a black hat is their physical therapist, massage person.
Another cool thing, was that Jackline made me autograph a book ('Bhakti Yoga: The Art of Eternal Love’ authored by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada) signed by me Drumila Dasa, saying, "To Cameron Crowe, a little gift from New Orleans from Drumila Dasa.
Cameron Crowe is one of the biggest directors in Hollywood. He has done such films as 'Almost Famous’ with Kate Hudson, and 'Jerry Maguire’ with Tom Cruise, and 'Vanilla Sky’ with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. He has also won an 'Acadamy Award’ for Best Director. So she is going directly give him the book signed by me. It was her idea!
Jackline told me they’re shooting a new Series for 'Showtime’ called 'Roddies’ which comes out in June. It’s directed by Cameron Crowe.
Jaya Srila Prabhupada!