Sisir-da

Sisir-da was the Joint Director of our school, Pavitra-da being the director. After he completed his studies Sisir-da joined Shantiniketan as professor. From there he came to Pondicherry. He never mentioned how he came here. All we knew is that he came & stayed for good.

He was a historian; wrote articles but three books written by him are often consulted by many of our teachers of history. They are “The Dawn Eternal, Vision of India & The Resurgent India.” These books deal with different aspects of Indian History & culture.

A most simple gentleman, I have never seen him in other than his white dhoti, chadar and a fatua. Only in winter he used a Endy Chadar if it was cold enough. He lived in the school premises in the last room of the East Block, which is now used as a piano-room and Gujarati Library.

He had very few friends, Nirod-da definitely was the closest. They used to have their breakfast together in Nirod-da’s room in The Ashram building. He would be in Nirod-da’s room at the same hour daily. Nirod-da once mentioned that in the preparation of the breakfast Sisir-da had a specific chore and he did it with great concentration. He never even spoke till what he was doing was completed. It was only then he began to exchange some information or just converse.

I took an instant liking for him because he resembled very much tmy mother’s Guru. If you made these two gentlemen stand side by side you would not only take them as brothers, maybe even think of them as twins. In the Playground I saw him for the first time and spoke of the resemblance to my aunt.

In the month of March 1953 - I was accepted by The Mother as a member; that was the way in early years. One never came only to study, one became a member of The Ashram family.

After being accepted by The Mother I went to the school with my uncle to meet Sisir-da. He asked me a few questions and decided which class I should join. He then sent the particulars to The Mother for her approval. Very next day I was asked to join the classes & thus my student life began.

First couple of years Sisir-da was nowhere in my life, we who were junior students met him in the school courtyard or moving from one class to the other. Slowly there began an exchange of a few words now and then and slowly it grew into regular communication. There came a time when I went through a very difficult phase as I was having a strained relation with my aunt, with whom I lived. It is then, that I began to confide in him and strangely enough I felt quite relived after that. I started to take for granted his help.

I began to work in the school library in the mid fifties. Then other helpers were Nandita-di, Dolly, Suniti-di (Pantula). Arati-di was and is the librarian. Later Bithi, Tossy’s elder sister joined. During the holidays while working we sometimes sat with books in hand and resorted to chit chat for a while or pull each other’s leg. Dolly was a sport. She was the most lively person; she had always little anecdote to narrate. It was a homogeneous group and to work in the school library was great fun.

Suddenly we had a brilliant idea. We will ask Sisir-da to treat us one afternoon. He was pleased and at the same time did not know what to do. So we took money, went to Cottage Restaurant got some Samosa and chops and had a high tea on the school lawn. (That was the beginning of afternoon tea in the school library during the holidays.)

While he was writing “The Resurgent India” he developed a very bad skin disorder all over his body. It was not only painful but embarrassing too as people asked what treatment he was following etc, etc. The senior sadhaks didn’t visit all the doctors present in the Ashram; they stuck to the one to whom they went regularly. Naturally lots of advice was given by sadhaks and sadhikas.

One evening when I went to help him with his evening meal, I found him unhappy but dared not ask him why. After a while he himself said that The Mother was not happy with the way he was working on the book. According to Her he has become too engrossed in writing and has left aside his sadhana. That is why She was unable to help him to get cured.

As I have already mentioned, he was the Joint-Director of the school. So he had quite a few regular duties to perform. In the beginning the school did not begin with The Mother’s music, Her reading with Sunil-da’s music. The bell rang we recited “Make of us …” and the class began. After a few minutes we saw Sisir-da going through the premises; first the ground floor, then the first floor, walking from end to end to see that the teachers were present in their respective classes and the buildings were clean. This duty he fulfilled very conscientiously till he was unable to make the round due to age & also due to illness in the latter period of his life.

From the inception of the school it was a rule to send the list of the absent students to The Mother every afternoon. From the very first period a worker with a notebook went round the school, from class room to class room, and wherever there was an absentee, it was noted down. In the afternoon Sisir-da would copy down the names in a bound note-book for this specific work, send it to Pavitra-da who in turn took it to The Mother for Her perusal. This rule continued for quite a long time.

Another duty that he had to execute was the teachers meetings ’minutes' to be written & sent to The Mother. On the first of every month we have no school. Can any teacher of this generation or present student body know the reason? I am afraid not. It is because on the first of every month The teachers’ meeting was held. They met, discussed their ideas and problems which were put down by Sisir-da and then sent to The Mother for Her comments and advice.

Like all the other Senior Sadhaks he too believed that every child should be honest and straight-forward. He was unable to scold any child. If a teacher took a student to him for some serious mischief he became very disturbed and uttered “go, don’t do it again.”

From these sadhaks we could have learnt a great deal but as all over the world youth has its false pride and sense of wisdom. We were given a great chance to learn a lot from sadhaks like Sisir-da but have we profited!