"Inner Peace" In Pune

Time and again, you see that inner peace is quite simple. It's all a matter of letting go of your expectations. The first expectation that crashed regarding our workshop in Pune, was that the cook whom Jyotsna had hired failed to turn up. Somehow that didn't matter at all because cooking just became a part of the curriculum. When the evening meditation was over, the team took over Jyotsna's kitchen and within an hour and a half we had produced quite an impressive meal of bhindi, palak paneer, kala dal, and raita and pulao which we rounded off with some chocolate chikki which Jyotsna had bought in Panchgani when we were there in May.

I have to clarify I suppose that my role in this whole feat was to keep Sharat company at the table while he chopped bhindis. The rest of the time I read "My family and other saints" by Kirin Narayan who it turned out is an ex BIS (Bombay International School) student, whose sister Maya I'd briefly studied with and whose brothers Rahul and Deven I knew slightly, though they were much junior to me.

In between the bai coming and going and trains whistling as they roared past, we did in fact, manage to unwind with the help of some music and plain exercises in listening and had some good dialogues. The surprise element was Kalpana, a new addition to our group who kind of discovered us through the net. She came from Delhi and turned out to be a real good sport, pitching in enthusiastically with everything we did.

On the way back we stopped at Khandala, to visit Uma L who had invited to stay with her at a friend's bungalow about which there will be more in the next post perhaps along with some pictures, yet to be sent by Sharat and Uma.