The Old Playground

The Old Playground - How did we spend the time

Between group activities and March Past

    

     These days when we enter the Playground we find ourselves in a big field with concrete buildings all around. Before remodelling and reconstruction, Playground was not so. There was an imposing neem tree in the Dortoir courtyard  and a patch of green grass at the very entrance. Just after the cement bench on the left of the Entrance was the green lawn ; it was on a slope  about ten metres long and no one was allowed to walk on it.

     When the Playground was remollded the whole picture changed. Except The Mother 's room , the Projector room , the passage room, everything was demolished and constructed anew.

          Just to give a rough idea of The old Playground, though in the photos of earlier days it is very  clear, yet for the new comers it may give a rough idea.

     The entrance door is the same, though there has been some changes in its shape, after which on the left began the ground and to the right a long hall with quite a broad verandah.

     On the verandah were suspended rings and rope for doing exercises. At the end, on the west  most side of the verandah, were the "wall bars" again for exercises. The hall was used for keeping gymnastic apparatus such as box, pomelled horse, uneven bars and mattrasses for agility. The groups having gymnastics had to take out all these apparatus and mattrasses in the open and arrange them for doing items.

     On the west of this hall was a small room used for different purposes. Primarily it was the tiffin room. Afternoon tiffin was distributed from here and Vishwajit-da was in charge." Dhoke be as le ao"as his famous coinage. It could have been anything from a spoon to a dish to a piece of bread. The moment he heard something falling he would shout "Dhokar le as . "

     This room was also used by the elderly sadhaks of H group to keep their clothes and bags. For, many of them would come wearing a dhoti over their group shorts.

     Outside to the west of this small room there were two taps to wash tiffin vessels and also to water the Playground. Above the taps was a frame for fixing the screen for film projection. So to see a film we sat facing the north.

     Then began the "Dortoir" building . It was an one storey building with an adjacent small courtyard in which there was an old neem tree which spread its branches over a part of The Playground.  While remodelling The Playground this tree was dug out with lots of care and transplanted in the Dining Room garden. But unfortunately it didn't surrvive. After "Dortoir" building as of today the "Guest House".

     On the southern side again the building was from east to west. At the very beginning  there were two rooms used as the "Laboratory",  till the present Lab was constructed. In one of these rooms The Mother used to give interview and also hold classes for a group of ladies. The classes  before I joined the school. After these rooms there was a big hall which we used to call "The Mother's class Room ", as She used to hold classes for elder sadhhhhaks and sadhikas; the students being : Amrita-da, Nolini da, Pavitra-da, Rishabchand-da, Priti-di, Millie-di, Minu-di, Tehmi-ben,Nolini Sen da, Ila-di, Indukha-di, Sutapa and others. There were around 30/35 people who attented the classes.

     It is here that The Mother translated some of Sri Aurobindo works in French. This particular hall was also used by the students after group activities, before March Past and during Marching. Who so ever had some homework to complete would sit in the hall and finish as much as possible; as there would always be a few teachers sitting along and doing their own work; thus there was always someone to help the students. In this hall The Mother used to see the film before it was shown to the ashramites. For, at that time we had only one 16 mm projector which Vishwanath-da would arrange in the hall. But we saw the film in The Playground facing north as I have already mentioned.

     After this hall came The Mother's rest room and Her  washroom which are  left as they were, then the passage room. Entering the south most part of The Playground the toilets and wash basins are in the same place but there was also  a concrete half wall along with a row of Casurina trees dividing the passage and the courtyard. On this ground rings were suspended from a height, which were used by the  body builders. In fact this was the body building section of our Playground. On right side there was a room in which dumbbells and weights were arranged. They were taken out in the open and exercises done. Just east of this room was the drinking water tank with taps . Here the open space was not very big but a few wall mirrors were hung for the use of the body builders' use.

    At  east most there were two rooms, between these two rooms there was a space in which the malcumb was planted.

     Above the drinking water area  there was a small hall for asanas taught by Ambu-bhai . A metal staircase led to that hall. I believe there is a photograph of that particular staircase where The Mother is releasing a bunch of balloons .

     There were two rooms to the east having the windows on the road. In one of them lived Gauri-di who was in charge of The Mother's Room in The Playground. Later a room was  constructed on the first flour to the west of the projector room for her (while waiting for The Mother coming from Tennis ground,she would sit, opening the small door, from where they now bring out "The Chair" for meditation, and do embroidery on The Mother's dresses. We would often stand by the door and watch for a while her work).

     Narendra Jauhar , the second brother of Chitra-di. (Faith farm) used to live in the other room . But he passed away at a very early age. After him Ajit Sarkar came to live in that room till he left for France.

     This in general how" The Playground " was, but I began by saying how we spent the time between the group activities and March Past.

     As of now there were Play ground, Tennis ground, Volley ball ground and the Sports ground without the eastern annex.

     Those who had activities in the Sports ground had to walk down to the ground. Generally the Green and Red group members walked  in  formation of two, as we see the children of Green group going to Tennis ground now a days. In the earlier days there were only two division of Green group- A1 the younger children and A2 the older one. Members of A1 would have all their activities in the Playground except for Sea Swimming. They would go to the Tennis ground. Sea Swimming was one of the regular programmes for most of the Groups till the Swimming Pool was constructed in 1958. From 5.30 P.M. different groups would have their gymnastics at the Playground, at the end of the items Pranab-da gave order for Marching which rounded up the day's  gymnastics.

     If The Mother didn't consent to give interview then  the March Past began by 7.15-7.20 P. M. After March Past durind marching The Mother rested for a while and then came out for concentration . After concentration She stood at the door of Her Room and distributed either ground nuts or a toffee to The Dining Room workers, Bakery workers and some others. Then She would walk down to the "Guest House" to distribute the same to the members of Green Group.

    The days there was a class, she remained there, conducted the class. If I recollect correctly the classes were held on Sunday, Tuesday  and Friday. Sunday was the day for recitation of a few verses from a poem or a sentence written by The Mother. This selection she handed over to Tara who had a special note-book in which she copied and left the note-book at a particular place in PED library; the children of Group A would go anytime of the week to the library, copy down and begin to memorise." La Mere Travaille Avec les Enfants" is the collection of all there recitations, dictations and stories " The Mother did with the children of Group A.

     Then on Tuesday there would be dictation and Friday story telling. For dictation she would dictate one sentence and after correcting it give marks. I joined the class after it had begun  on. The Playground around the map. Then she read different legends from different countries. I believe the full set is still there in our school library.

  After distribution and class with group A She would come out and continue Her distribution with first B group and then C, D, E, F, G, H , then the Ashramites who were not in group and lastly the visitors. She walked around The Playground once certainlty but sometimes she even took two rounds during Darshan Period. On Wednesday there was the class with B group members which She used to hold in Her Room. But in  time it became too crowded . Moreover many inmates of The Ashram wished to attend to these classes thus The B group class also was conducted in the open.

     Class days She avoided giving any interview. But the day there was one, one was not sure as to when the March Past would take place . It was in those days that one could see very interesting  circles around  the Play ground. I have already spoken about "news reading". Arup Tagore who in those days played on his mouth organ would sit with some of his friends and play Bengali and Hindi songs on request . Then there would be a group around Kabi da (Nishikanto) This group consisted of those who could sing Rabindra Sangeet. Kabi-da was naturally centre of this circle and on his request some one or the other of the group sung some Rabindra Sangeet with that now and then he spoke of his early days at "Shantiniketan". Once it so happened , on that particular evening there was a strong breeze and Kabi-da was sitting with us under the neem tree, there was a gust of wind and a few leaves fell on us. Kabi-da picked up one and said, " Do you want to hear how Robi Thakur gave a good lesson to my elder brother?" (Sudhakanto, Kobi-da's elder brother did a lot of secretarial work for the poet) Dada was out of station for a while and when returned went to meet the poet next morning very early . Entering the room Dada found the poet sipping some green juice as if with a lot of relish. Dada was quite intrigued. What was it that Gurudev was enjoying ? Rabindranath must have suspected something and with a smile asked "Sudha, will you like to taste it a little?" Dada was overjoyed and replied "If Gurudev ....!" Then Rabindranath called his personal servant "Banamlti" and ordered him to give Sudhakanta a full glass of what he was drinking. After a while a big glass of green juice was offered to Sudhakanta; who with all eagerness took his first sip only to make a face. Robindranath was observing Sudhakanta all along and seeing the expression he chided, "So Sudha, you people have the false notion that Gurudev always tastes the tastiest of things!" It was a tumbler full of neem leaf juice.

     Sensing that The Mother was ready for March Past, Pranab-da would give the order for ressemblement and every one would hurry to stand in formation in their respective  groups. The March Past , marching , concentration , distribution, classes if it were a day of class or meditation. The Mother returning to the Ashram , the time could be any where between 9 and 10  PM.