Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached

AT KALYANI

(As caretaker)

We arrived in Delhi in the early morning of First of April by Ola cab. That day itself we left for Kolkata by Sealdah Rajdhani arond 4.25 p.m. reaching Sealdah on 2nd of April

Our household goods that were sent from Dehradun on 29th of March 2018 arrived at Kalyani in the afternoon of 5th of April, 2018. The truck was parked by the road side in front of our house. We had to wait for people from Agarwal packers to come and unload the goods. Our articles were not covered properly in the truck and that sparked a verbal duel with the unloaders and my wife. I wanted to get the things unloaded first and discuss and complain about the conditions of the articles. So I mediated and cooled down the temperature and got all articles starting unloaded. It was started around 11.30 a.m and completed the work around 5 p.m. Krishna complained that the unloaders kept things not in order that involved a lot of extra work for her. I admitted that it was so.

After a few days stay I left for Delhi on 8th of April and Krishna stayed on to look after some unfinished work. On 9th I reached Delhi and on 10th I left for Nainital. Nainital was cool unlike Delhi.

I joined my work there at the Nainital Ashram mainly taking meditation session for the students for an hour every evening. This class includes 5 minutes meditation and 55 minutes of motivational interactive session with the students. They all enjoyed the classes and wrote highly about it in their feedback form. I too enjoyed talking to the students. During July and August months there are no youth camps organized due to rainy season. I left for Delhi Ashram on 2nd of July and left for Kalyani on 6th of July, 2018.

On 19th July I left Kalyani for Delhi reaching there on 20th of July. I stayed on in Delhi till the 9th of Sept. In the meantime, one Ajay Waikar from Pune joined the Ashram for Nainital Branch. He was being trained at Delhi Ashram where I met him. He too being connected with Vivekananda Kendra, our friendship developed quite naturally.

I was keen to visit Rishikesh before rejoining Nainital Ashram. Ajay also joined me for 4 days stay at Rishikesh. We were lodged at Dayanand Ashram, Rishikesh. The Ashram was very clean although location is little inside reaching there through lanes and by lanes. But it has an exposure to the flowing Ganges and that makes this place worth staying. One thing which I liked most was serving of 'Khichri' every night as dinner. All the swamijis were of traditional type and mostly from Kerala and other South Indian States. On 13th night we two left for Haridwar to catch our respective trains; Ajay was heading for Delhi and myself for Nainital. There was heavy shower when we reached Haridwar. I almost got drenched but Ajay managed with his raincoat. At the Haridwar station we waited for our trains to arrive, his train was late by 4 hours and mine 15 minutes. So I left by Kathgodam express earlier than his Delhi bound train although my train's departure scheduled time was later than Ajay's.

I reached Kathgodam on 14th July morning at about 7 a.m. and took a cab up to Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Bara Patthar, Arya Patti, Nainital. I was there just in time for breakfast. As my room was there already set, I brushed my teeth and went for breakfast. I just said hello to Nalinji and postponed my meeting with him after 10 a.m. Thus I settled myself for the camp activities till I left Nainital on 20th of October, 2018 for Delhi Ashram on way to Kolkata and Kalyani where we planned to stay till March 10th of 2019. I stayed at the Delhi Ashram till I left for Kolkata on 29th of Oct. In the meantime we sent two carton full of articles to our Kalyani address and one, mainly books, to our daughter in Bangalore through Safe Express. On 29th myself and Krishna left for Kolkata by Sealdah Rajdhani and reached Sealdah at 10.15 a.m. on 30th Oct. and reached Kalyani by a local train. At 1.30 p.m. we were at home and had simple lunch prepared by our maid.

Here at Kalyani life has been quite smooth, doing a lot of readings and started a few hours of work with Tandon ji.

On December 10, Shivani came from Bangalore and we went to Kolkata airport to receive her. She stayed with us till 25th night and left at the early morning of 26th around 3.30 a.m when we accompanied her to the airport. Although it was a small hour of the night, without any hitch we reached the airport before time and we came back home around 6 a.m. Shivani called up around 9 a.m. to inform her arrival in Bangalore.

At Kalyani I regularly go to market and buy fresh vegetables. I use the bicycle which Shivani bought it at Dehradun during her hostel stay while she was pursuing her Master in English. I also go round the city using the bicycle and it is an exercise for me. Weather here is quite pleasant, winter is mild and summer is soft unlike Dehradun and Delhi. Since 30th of October we are at Kalyani.

As I promised to be at Nainital Ashram during the summer camps and Krishna to be at Delhi Ashram, we left Kalyani on 5th of March,2019. We appointed a care taker during our absence. On 6th of March we reached Delhi and I stayed on till 17th March before leaving for Nainital on 18th March. Krishna stayed on at Delhi Ashram.

At Nainital I reached at 1.05 p.m. and the weather was cloudy, cold and it rained for sometime. I passed by the Lake and finally arrived at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram center at 1.20 p.m. This location is away from the city center and perched on a hill top at a height of 2178 meter. After 2 days the first camp started with the students from Orissa numbering about 100 including 45 teachers. My work was to take up a meditation session followed by a motivational talk. The rest of the day I used to take care of guests who would come for a visit to the center or to stay for a few days. I had also enough time to study Sri Aurobindo's writings. But this time my stay was a short one as I fell sick on 30th of March and had hard time as availability of medical care was scarce. However, Gaurav, the singer, took me to the general hospital and got some treatment but it was not sufficient. My fever continued. In the meantime I had a dream and it indicated that my continued stay at Nainital would jeopardize my life. I decided to leave Nainital for my home town at Kalyani and send away all my books and other utility articles by transport. Accordingly, I booked a packer and transporter and it cost me about Rs. 33,000/- They came on 6th March and packed all articles and took away the articles. Finally all these articles reached my home safely after 10 days.

I left Nainital on 8th of April and stayed at Delhi Ashram for two days and left for Kolkata on way to Kalyani. In the meantime my fever automatically subsided and finally left by the time time I reached Kalyani on 12th of April.

I stayed alone at home for the next 2 months and 18 days and on 30th June my wife and daughter reached from Pondicherry. We continued to stay at home till 11th August when we left for Delhi to attend Sri Aurobindo Ashram programes. On copletion of the Ashram Program I left Delhi on 16th of August for home while they continued for a month at the Ashram.

My life at home has been relatively quiet than it was at Delhi Ashram or at Nainital. I have been able to read a number of books I always wanted to read and imbibe those teachings in my own life.

Thus my life at Kalyani continues. In March 2020, a new pandemic spread by name 'Corona" virus throughout the world and it also hit Kolkata and adjoining places. Although we were not hit directly at this place, we had to follow lockdown rules strictly, like not going out of home, if at all by using a mask, and no outbound travel. While we were under this lockdown, Krisna had a mild stroke in the early hours of Saturday, the 11th of April and she had to be hospitalised and kept in ICU till the life threatening period passed over. I experienced life in its most sorrowful intensity seeing her condition. She came back home on 14th April morning and recuperating since then.

Krishna is still trying to recover from the attack. Many other irritants are developing and we are trying to short it out. Over four months period now she can take care of herself, doing little things at home. Contd. to Kalyani days 2