99) The AOL trainer

Things couldn’t have been more content in the Sharma household. Tara was waiting for her daughter’s arrival from United States and it was more than four years since she last saw Bina since her marriage.

Ironically Tara’s son too was based in US, in Los Angles working for a software engineer at CISCO and so one could understand the excitement building up in Tara’s house as the old couple literally counted the days and when both the son’s and daughter’s families would land up at Meenambakkam.

Tara and her husband had settled very comfortably in Madras and they tried being in the US for sometime but never got the hang of it especially once the children went out to work. Loneliness gnawed at them and even the neighbours were miles away and there was no human interaction during the day. Even the traffic in those neighbourhoods did not cause uproar. If you are used to India then this silence is funereal and unacceptable.
Here everything comes with a noise attached: right from the paperboy and milk maid banging the bell, to the flow of traffic on the road, to neighbours who asked for your welfare and even assisted you in times of need.

They came back to good old Madras and decided that they December years would be there after they had gotten used to morning walks by the Marina and spiritual classes on weekends of Swamiji.

Both the daughter and son were full of stories and gifts: his wife was pregnant with their second child and Bina finishing her journalism course and her apprentice in ABC.

The old parents took them to temples, prepared their special dishes, called on friends and relatives and the cup of joy overflowing. Then tragedy stuck.

Their son-in-law, a devotee of Aurobindo had earmarked a visit to Pondicherry. The son also accompanied him and after the darshan and meditation sessions were bound back for Madras. They were in a Toyota Qualis and the driver seemed an old hand. They were on the ECR road when a bus suddenly swerved into them and it banged right in the rear were these two men were sitting.

Both were hospitalized and son-in-law was declared dead on arrival while the son battled on. But within a fortnight he too collapsed plunging the entire family to a kind of grief unimaginable.

The pregnant daughter-in-law stayed with them while Bina went back to US to pick up the pieces again.

This is the kind of sorrow that only lengthens with time and for more than a year, the old couple was housebound and walks or lectures or shopping did not make much sense and it was their daughter-in-law who saw them through this phase.

She forced Tara to an AOL class and it was only there some life got infused in the lady. Her daily practice of the Sundarshan Kriya had such a salutary effect that inside of a month a new vein of life began to flow through. She taught her husband the breathing schedules and he too showed some improvement.

Tara became a volunteer of the AOL movement and went house to house to enlist members to join the basic course. They were many takers since the entire neighbourhood had been witness to their epic tragedy and soon she was filling up these classrooms.
Krishnan, instructor upon noticing her zeal encouraged her to become a teacher for which she underwent training in Bangalore. Even Sri Sri spoke to her for a long time and her grace was apparent to one and all.

Now it’s been two years since she has been taking AOL classes in Adyar. Her reputation and sincerity makes people come from far and befriend her. She now has a new purpose in life and she is available to receive calls right through 24 hours for people in need.

Life gave her the cruelest blow and yet she has persevered through and retained her sanity. And each time I see her, I feel the triumph of the mind and a miracle this little woman had wrought. (680 words)