I met Giovanni around the same time we first moved into the ashram in the Hamilton heights neighborhood of the upper west side of Manhattan. I would walk by the C town grocery store every day going to catch the subway to go on Harinam and he’d be standing outside the store sometimes so one day I said hello and we became friends. He told me that he’s the grocery store manager. Once I asked him if they could lend us the metal slide they use to move boxes into the store basement from the truck deliveries so we could move our boxes of books more easily and quickly into our basement and he said no problem. So we borrowed it every time there’s a book order and it saves us a lot of time. He also donates bhoga like vegetables and fruits to the ashram whenever possible. Today I saw him while I was walking back to the ashram from the subway with a “Sapta” set in my hands and I showed it to him. I told him it’s a special holiday, the birthday appearance of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he said he would buy the set from me to share with some of his employees!
