Where Do You Come From? by Nado Aveling

Author:Nado Aveling
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Published: 2019-10-29T16:00:00+00:00

Going to Poona

As a sannyasin, it was expected that one make the pilgrimage to the ashram in Poona, or Pune, the city’s Indian name. I had always wanted to go to India so here was my opportunity. I went to the ashram in Pune twice: the first time was in 1979 during the school holidays to see what all the fuss was about and to find out why this was considered a ‘must-do’ for all devotees of Bhagwan; the second time Kate and I went in 1980 because we were bored and lonely. Andres had gone to Pune with his father and Evelyn had been invited to spend the summer holidays with my mother in Sydney. Harrison, of course, was in Melbourne with his family. As I had the money from the sale of the Shenton Park house I thought that we too could go to India, however, Kate didn’t have a passport so this was the first item on our to-do list. As Thomas couldn’t be contacted I took the simple expedient to sign the necessary documents on his behalf and off we went (the anarchist in me continues to believe that anyone should have the right to travel anywhere, anytime).

I had no idea where we were to stay but had learned on my first trip that there was always a spare bed or at least a spare sleeping mat somewhere. Eventually, we rented a small room in an old Indian mansion that we shared with Mary Catherine whom I had met during my first trip. There were two beds and a mattress on the floor for Kate. If we wanted to open the door, the mattress needed to be rolled up, but even so, it was more space than Andres was getting. He was in a dorm with his dad where the sleeping mats were side by side and head to toe, without much room in between. As an aside: the bitch in me wants to mention that Thomas asked me to pay half of Andres’ airfare. Stupidly, I agreed. No, he did not offer to pay half of Kate’s airfare.

Katie adapted to India in no time at all. As Mary Catherine and I were up early to attend morning Discourse, we would usually meet Kate for breakfast afterwards. I had been enrolled in two groups by the staff in the office, as was the practice: Enlightenment Intensive and Psychodrama were the groups that were chosen for me. When the groups were in session, Kate did her own thing. I had worked out a daily budget for her (she was eleven at the time) that was to last her for meals at the ashram, rickshaw fares, money for the beggars and incidentals. She made friends with a lot of sannyasins and while she sometimes caught up with Andres or her father, the children were mostly left to their own devices. In some ways it was a case of the village looking out for the kids and when we

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