with Sri Ganesh

But nothing seemed to make any difference and Arjun became anxious that one must not play with this and make it worse by postponing qualified medical help; but where to go? Our friend Dinker Pai, who had done the surgery in the Ashram Nursing Home that earlier time was now posted in Malaysia and we knew no one in Pondy who would be that trustworthy and competent. The prospect of getting me admitted in Jipmer was daunting – the dirt and noise and clumsiness and neglect of the place – but, on the other hand, it was the one hospital in the whole area where we could be sure to find very highly talented doctors, specialists and surgeons. To me this was a sort of defeat; I was losing several battles at once and, if there had to be another operation, I would have to again work for months to rebuild the muscles and general fitness of this body, which was now 8 years older!!! Eventually, there seemed to be no other option before us. It was about 10 pm when we left; Arjun took me in his car, along with Bhaskar; Dinesh and Shiva drove on Shiva’s bike. Parthy had agreed to stay at home and go to bed – I had made sure he’d had his dinner – and not to worry and not to forget to take his medication… Yet I still felt I was letting him down… But I was quite weakened and physically distressed and it took a long while and much energy on my friends’ parts to get me duly admitted and taken to a common ward. There they promptly put me on IV perfusion. This was in the night of the 12 th to the 13 th . Exactly 36 years since I had come back to Auroville, and joined Matrimandir, in 1973. For the next two days I was kept in that same ward and given “conservative management treatment”, which meant that the doctors were hoping the bowels would get disentangled on their own, now that no food intake was occurring. I was held up by a lot of genuine affection and everyone took turns to be by my side, day and night – Arjun and Dinesh and Selvam were the most present, and Anand and Bhaskar and Jean Yves made themselves available as well, and others came and went and phoned and I kept instructing regarding the care needed by Parthy.

I also came to the point which I had felt hovering in for quite some time, the point of having to accept that perhaps the time had come, in

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