Part 7: Finally, A Room With A View

Before I go further with this interminable account of my stay, I would like to make a small clarification. Since I have arrogated to myself the right to post anonymously, I believe I also have a duty to protect the identities of the people I encountered during my stay. Therefore my descriptions of characters in these accounts may be altered to mask their true identities. There are no deep or dark secrets to hide, and none of the participants in my experience stipulated confidentiality, but I still deem it appropriate to take the identities out of the narrative. There is a story to be told (some may join issue with me on that!) but I see no reason why any of the characters that feature in it must be addressable.

So let us see, where was I? Yes, in the Indian accommodation office, waiting for the Western accommodation office to open. It opened at 11am as scheduled and I went up to meet whoever was in charge there. Achan in the Indian acco office had smoothed my path with a phone call even before I set out on this mission, so I climbed the steps to the Western acco office in the old temple with confidence. Over there, I spoke to a brahmacharini (female reunciate) of European origin. She took my passport and handed over the keys to a room in the Western block. Although I was travelling alone, and the normal policy was to group people together three or four to a room, she was kind enough to allot me a vacant room where I would be the sole occupant for the first 3 out of a total 5 days of intended stay. I had arrived, quite deliberately, in a lean season and there were probably lots of vacancies.

I had arrived after midnight on a Wednesday morning and planned to stay until Sunday to take in the Devi Bhava (Amma in Her Divine Mother aspect). So my plan was to take in a darshan (audience with a sage) every day when it was available. Friday was the only non-darshan day in my calendar, so I would take in a darshan a day upto Monday morning, when I planned to depart the scene. I had mentally gone over the dosage (in pills of Amma experience) beforehand and figured it was about right: 3-5 darshans in India, and the same number in my country of residence, when Amma comes a-visiting once a year. That was more than enough for me at the existing level of longing for Amma. After all, I had not felt, upto that point or even subsequently, the waves of indescribable bliss that many have claimed to experience in Amma's presence. Therefore I approached this calculation pragmatically; I was not out to spend every minute and second with Amma.

I gathered my luggage, thanked the brahmacharini at the counter and went off to my new quarters. It was in the building overlooking the swimming pool and kayal (inland waterway). The room was located at the end of a long corridor on a high floor. I let myself in and surveyed the scene. After my experience of the night before, this was like the Presidential Suite at the Waldorf Astoria. (I have never stayed at that swank hotel and never will, given my modest means, but I exaggerate merely for dramatic effect). I was overjoyed. The relief I felt was so immense, that even with my limited literary skills I could have composed a sonnet, on the spot, to 'The Room'. Posterity will record with gratitude that I did not succumb to the temptation to litter the universe with my uni-verse.

Om Amriteshwaryai Namah