Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Three more pairs of mischievous eyes peered down at me from
behind its back, no doubt assessing my potential as a victim.
I now realised how feverish I felt, wondering if these monkeys
were malarial hallucinations. Then I noticed the sensation of molten
lead swiftly gurgling out of nowhere and streaming through my
guts . . .
I made it to the squatter just in time, yodelling in pain as cramps
and spasms exploded like landmines everywhere south of my waist.
Sweat poured from my now-scalding brow like rain. All I could
think of was the fat woman on the bus and her bloody food. Then I
remembered the pakoras I'd bought in Brigade Road from a man
who made them right there on a grimy wooden slab amid the
blowing dust, open sewers, and diesel fumes, frying them in what
could well have been used engine oil.
Half an hour later, feeling fifty years older, very humble, and as if
I'd received an enema with Liquid-Plumber, I decided it was safe to
venture more than a yard from the toilet facilities. I sincerely doubted
I'd ever eat again as I crept out and headed toward the ashram, each
step making even my hair hurt.
The tidy little compound bustled, people scuttling to and fro
with stainless-steel pails, jasmine
malas
, bales of banana leaves, and
straw brooms, their fists full of incense. What they were up to, I
wasn't entirely sure. The average age here seemed to be eighty. Most
of the withered old men were clad in scanty white loincloths, just
like my priestly concierge the previous night, and all the women
wore cheap white cotton widows' saris. Even ashrams have their
own uniforms.
A glance at photographs of Ramana Maharshi himself explained
much. Cropped white hair and beard, with a kindly face and deeply
compassionate eyes, and all he seemed to have ever worn on his
slender little body was a skimpy white loincloth. It made him look
curiously babyish - an adult in a nappy.
An office labelled 'Office' struck me as a good destination. In it a
burly Brahmin, his sacred thread making him look overdressed,
looked up from the letter he was smoothing out on a tidy little desk.
'You can stay two days only,' he stated rather severely.
