1998 was the magic year for me. That's when I decided to try for a 3 month trip instead of the usual 3 or 4 or 5 week trip. So many things happened that year and when I look back I realize how close to the edge I was, how many risks I took, I would just be too scared to do something like that now.
Maybe Master sensed that and maybe that's why he opened up so much that year. I don't know. I'm just guessing.
That one year I was just going by pure instinct, one foot in front of the next, just feeling my way along like someone blindfolded. I didn't know where I was going, didn't have a plan. After flying into Madras, at the hotel, staying up all night from jetlag - I thought to myself: what are you going to say, how to word it, what's your fallback incase he says no.
Oh that jet lag! That first night in Madras tossing and turning unable to sleep and waiting for morning. So I went over, speaking very calmly, I said to him: "I have left my job and come to stay here for 3 months" and then a long pause while it sunk in. "I am looking for a place somewhere near here, if you know of anything. I cannot afford to stay in the hotel for that long".
Then I had lunch at his place, went upstairs to sleep on the mat on the floor and thought: "oh well, I've done it now, que sera sera". That evening or night, SP and Mr. G. both said to me, in that formal and very old-world courteous way they have of speaking, "we would like you to stay with us. You can sleep upstairs in the dance room".
Oh lord! I was just thrilled. I was also broke and if they had not made me that offer I would have had to either cut short my flight and leave within 2 weeks or ... well there was no other option really. So I said: "thank you, I will stay here". The next day I checked out of the hotel and hired a green fiat car and went shopping for little things: buckets and pails and mugs. Bathroom brushes and mops. An electric immersion heater. A folding bed. Gloves (what was I thinking?!). An electric voltage adaptor. When I arrived at Purasawalkam and got out of the car with all my paraphernalia and my blue suitcase - oh what a thrill. That night I put on my stereo and listened to my Billy Holiday CD: "stars fell over alabama". Oh, it was just magical. Wistful. Adventure. A new adventure.
Everyone - the whole family - trooped upstairs just before bedtime to see if I was properly and comfortably installed. Of course I was! I was living in the classroom. The upstairs classroom. There was a terrace and a bathroom on a corner of the terrace.
I didn't realize what a bold step this was for Master. Within a few weeks a relative arrived from the village. An elderly gentleman. It was evening and dinner was served. He kept waiting for me to leave (this visitor) so that he could talk family matters or something. But it was past 8 and I was still there. He kept looking at me and looking at Master. Finally he said to Master "Ithu yaar ithu?" and master just said real casually - "oh that is my disciple, he lives with me, he's come for 3 months and after that he'll go back". "Oh" said the visitor, digesting all this.
I was thrilled! I never knew it could be such a thrill just to live with a family. I've lived with other families before. I've had roommates in college and since. But this was different. "disciple" ... that word just had a ring to it. Suddenly I felt like I was in a different era. Perhaps in olden days this is how it was? You did the sweeping and the dusting and in exchange pearls would drop, pearls of music, pearls of dance? I got carried away by this image and picked up the broom and tried sweeping the floor of that dance room one morning.
Sweeping is such hard work! It looks easy, but it isn't. I huffed and I puffed and swept, swept, and swept but the dust just kept going round and round in circles. Mrs. M. came up to hang up the clothes and was horrified and ran, literally ran in, and snatched that broom out of my hand and said "what are you doing?" as thought I had gone stark raving mad. "I live here, this is where I sleep, so I am sweeping my room clean" I said. "No, you will do nothing of the sort" she said in a very firm voice, for such a gentle lady. "Not while I am here to do the housework. I am the lady of this house and if there is anything to be done in housework, I will do it" she said. She obviously took great satisfaction in that role. I hadn't meant to belittle her. But now I realized that something I could do for my own reason could be interpreted as a shortcoming in someone else not doing their duty. Oh goodness! How complicated!
I had underestimated Mrs. M., she was gentle and retiring in her ways, and always soft-spoken, but I could see this lady was made of steel. She was affectionate and kindly, however, so I wasn't scared. Mrs. M was the lady of the house.
Anyway during that first year I was a novelty in the family. Visitors - who were mostly relatives - coming from other cities, came upstairs to look at me.
