Sherman, set the way-back machine to 1968 when “Mother” started the Ashram in honor of the guru for whom she was (most likely) consort. After his death in the 1950s, it took her a few years to found the Ashram. But how appropriate could it be: 1968? The Ashram was envisioned as a place with no religion, but totally spiritual, no governance, people living in peace and harmony. The first thing that flashed into MY mind was George Carlin’s role as Frank Madras (how appropriate) in Outrageous Fortune in which his response to Bette Midler’s exhortation to work for peace and harmony was “The 60’s were good to you”. The next thing that popped into my head was the very campy movie that Sean Connery did after his last James Bond film.
It was about a Utopian enclave surrounded by the riff-raff like me. I still like Sean’s diaper costume in that movie.But after 22 years, the vision that the “Mother” had is finally coming to fruition. Here is the dome in which only the truly committed and serious minds can enter to gaze at the crystal orb and meditate.
Deb and I were trying to decide if “committed and serious” really meant that the individuals that can go into the dome are the ones who have renounced religion, governance, and given their personal assets to the trust. Not THAT’s commitment or at least grounds for commitment. OK, I’m not going to get (too) judgmental or cynical. But of the 1500 (about 3 percent of the anticipated global village that will reside there – eventually) who live near the Ashram, I did not see them slaving away to build their Utopian village. In fact, all the laborers that I saw were definitely locals that are most likely the lowest caste. And that is just another reason Zardoz came to mind. But there were thousands of cashew nut trees from which the trust gets a bundle of money from (a) brewing a wicked local alcohol from the cashew fruit and (b) selling the cashews rather than letting the Iranians get the revenues.Now our hotel was very quaint.
It was an old mansion in the White part of town (the Indian part being the Black part of town). Let’s channel Grandma Ruth. The mansion had been on the verge of condemnation, which means it would have stood in a dilapidated state for another 100 or so years until two Indian entrepreneurs who just love French Provincial antiques, renovated it into a bed and breakfast for which you can see for yourself is rather charming
Deb and I strolled from the hotel in the late afternoon to the sea wall promenade and ended up at an eclectic restaurant for dinner.
The next morning we went to mass at one of the three main Catholic churches in the city. We had been told that the 8:30 mass was in English – NOT.
It was Tamil. And just like our Telugu masses in Hyderabad, you get the gist of the mass, but the music is definitely regional. After that, we took time to take a few pictures at the sea wall and then headed back to Chennai where Deb found some very good silks at a shop that Rajkumar promised that even HE purchased gifts for his wife there, meaning that the prices were very good. Deb agreed.Got to go for now. Talk to you soon.
Sean Connery in a diaper < Sean Connery in a suit
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