Life is a play

I still love watching the Fawlty Towers videos, even though I’ve seen them so many times. For quite a few years I was in a play troupe that put on Fawlty Towers plays regularly at Aspiration-Ground. I played the Major, who was a fuddy-duddy fixture at the hotel and was always forgetting things! I had a ball practicing with the boys and I think Guru really appreciated our plays. I’m grateful to Guru for all his beautiful play experiences which brought me so much joy.

I was also in a very special play put on by Saurjya, whom I like very much. It was a musical with a very deep meaning about adopting children, and Saurjya gave me a beautiful singing role that thrilled me to the core. It took me back to my younger days playing summer stock. Acting always appealed to my "life is a play" philosophy. I am grateful to Guru for his play-world. Nowadays, I listen to Guru’s stories and plays and it gives me so much joy! Hearing Guru’s cute short stories actually inspired me to write the stories in this book.

Circus

Guru loved the Madal Circus that we held every April and August Celebrations and I loved it too! Everybody had an opportunity to bring their hidden talents to the fore and to play with Guru and for Guru. I loved the joy of everything at the circus: the band, the laughter, the divine "acting out" – and don’t forget the hotdogs with sauerkraut, of which I averaged about ten each circus!

No one was more instrumental in bringing us joy at the circus than Charana, with his closing-act extravaganza that often surpassed Monty Python in its off-the-wall hilarity. I was always happy to be givena special crazy role to play in the production, and in between hotdogs I practiced almost the whole day on the act. I treasure my circus days with Charana, Ongkar, Kaivalya, Sanjaya and all the Brits and Scots and others. Such camaraderie I experienced! I really love those guys!

It was my favorite day of the year! I always looked forward to the act with Ongkar, Sanjaya and Kaivalya...and overall I think I just loved the joy that Guru created for us on that day. I waited for the moment when Guru would stand up and entertain us with "shooting hoops" or some other sport. Guru was our Supreme Entertainer – a subject which should, in itself, be an entire series of books! Most of all I loved watching Guru’s expressions of joy as the performers went through their acts. Guru loved us to be like seven-year-old children, and the circus was about as close as it gets to that!

I often drove those British boys to and from the airport at Celebration time and they would always bring me gourmet British tea or preserves. Hiranmoyi would always be on the lookout for those delicacies when I came home and she would try to get her hands on them. Of course, I always intended on giving them to her anyway!

My Singing Career

My memory for learning Guru’s songs is pathetic! After so many years, I just learned a handful of songs, so you can imagine how surprised I was when Guru put me into Sumadhur’s singing group. I had only been part of one group before, and that was Hashi’s group in South America on one Christmas Trip. I tried, I really did try to learn Guru’s songs, but even when Hiranmoyi would write down the words for me to peek at, I couldn’t even remember to do that!

So it was very fortunate that Guru put me into Sumadhur’s group, because the boys would come over to my house for practices and an automatic spin-off was that I heard so many songs that I was able to learn more of Guru’s songs. Guru commented on several occasions how the boys always practiced at my house and how I nicely served them hot drinks.

During one function at Aspiration-Ground, Guru called Sumadhur’s group to sing, but much to my surprise there were only two of us there. I bravely started Nijhum Rate and after we finished the song Guru said, “That is Hiranmoyi’s song!" I said, “I know, Guru!" That’s how smart and cute Guru is. He knows everything!