Krishnakumarji, Ila-di and others

It will not be fair if I don’t say something about the teachers who had been motherly towards us, especially those who lived without their parents.

To name only a few there were Ila-di, Indulekha-di, Rani di, Rajkumarji, Krishnakumariji. All these teachers taught me in the very first year in the Ashram school.

Krishna Kumariji and Rajkumariji were my first French teachers. They were sisters. After they were accepted by The Mother, she directed them to Bharti-di, a French lady to learn French. After a year of quite intensive work The Mother asked them to teach the younger students. Because whenever One teaches a subject, one is obliged to learn it better. That was The Mother’s opinion. So they began to teach.

Rajkumariji was very motherly, she looked upon us her own and if any of her students showed any impertinence, he/she could very well receive a slap as a mother would to correct. She knew that corporal punishment was forbidden in our school. So she tried to help all of us to learn discipline and study, but then there is always an exception either way. For a long period she would try to correct the individual but if she failed by persuasive manners she did not hesitate to be harsh with the errant student.


After a considerable 0period I met her on the road and we approached each other to greet. After some exchanges she advised me “Try to know your body. You should know it better than the others.” It was after I had a major operations.

Krishna-kumariji continued to teach till the end of her life. In the fifties and sixties she, Tanmay-da and Jayantibhai came together to create a curricular for the junior students. They prepared exercise in grammar, simplified texts; Wrote simple stories. Handwrote all these and then got them cyclostyled. Stories in easy French and profit. Many may not know, but then we neither had Bibliotheque choisic nor Resource Centre. A very mall library under Medhananda-da was on the first floor East block of the school. But after The Mother bought the present Library House, that library too got shifted there. There teaching contribution in learning French in our school is immense.

They in time began to teach in higher classes and as I was with the junior students and still am they left all those works in my care. Going through all there one can perceive what labour they had put in to help the students.

Krishnakumariji had acquired such mastery over French that whenever any writing of Sri Aurobindo was translated to be published in the Bulletin, it had to be sent to Krishnakumariji, it was only after her approval and signature was it sent to the press for printing.

Ila-di was one of the sadhikas who used to decorate The Samadhi with flowers. She, Prabha-di (Dipu’s mother) Meenakshiamma (Kittu and Bharati’s mother) Banalata-di, Shivarani-di, Light-di and a few others were the first group of ladies who were entrusted with this sacred work. Most of them were middle-aged. Once in a while if we went to the Ashram very early in the morning, we saw these ladies engrossed at decorating. Here I may just add an interesting note.

One morning I met Meenakshiamma at the Post office. We greeted each other and then she said that she was extremely happy. The cause? Just a few minutes back she met Amrita-da who informed her that The Mother remarked “Meenakshi washes The Samadhi with love and devotion.”

We all know that the walls of The Samadhi are thoroughly washed on every Sunday noon. As long as she was able, The Mother used to stand at Her window and observe the sadhaks and sadhikas working on The Samadhi.

Ila-di (mother of Chitra-di & Amita-di) taught Bengali. We had been her students for very many years why I am unable to say. Ila-di was of that age when one was not to argue with an elder, one was not to answer when scolded. We who were of that period tried to follow these rules. It was expected of us. Ila-di worked in the Dining Hall at the lunch hour. She distributed bread and banana. If per chance we took less dal or rice she caught our dish and chiding put a couple of spices and “Doing so much of exercises and not eating enough will ruin your health.” We accepted the slices and quietly walked out.

I had very little contact with Rani-di. The very first year she taught me English and one year Bengali. But she had a presence of her own. The lady with old world charm came, taught and made us feel: here was one to whom one could go. She was simple and at the same time very elegant. One could see her standing for minutes near the wall of Pujalalji’s room concentrating.

Indulekha-di on the other hand was a very down to earth person. She was Nolinida’s wife. She was such an unassuming person that visitors didn’t even know who she was and once in a while she was shooed away from Nalini-da’s door telling her not to disturb him.

One could see her coming to The Ashram early in the morning with her head bowed down, waling with small steps. She taught English in the morning and Bengali in the afternoon. She had a pencil half blue and half red with which she corrected our notebooks. Even while explaining to us our mistakes she looked at the notebook and once in a while asked “Have you understood?” For Bengali it was different. She expected us to know at least the rudimentary of the language, and if we uttered or wrote anything bordering to a howler she looked at us with such expression that we felt ashamed.

She was the mother of Ranju-da, Manju-da and Robi-da. Whatever obligation she felt towards them, it was not to be above her Ashram work: to come to school on time and teach.