{"id":3594,"date":"2020-05-07T15:38:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T13:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/contrib.city\/?p=3594"},"modified":"2020-06-07T20:53:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-07T18:53:00","slug":"3594","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/contrib.city\/index.php\/en\/2020\/05\/07\/3594\/","title":{"rendered":"Dialogue with Prithwindra MUKHERJEE – Childhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bertrand de Foucauld: <\/em>“Prithwindra, you were born in Calculta in 1936. At what age did your parents put you in the Sri Aurobindo ashram in Pondicherry?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prithwindra Mukherjee:<\/em> “First observation: it was not our parents who “put” us in the ashram. My father Tejendra was the eldest son of the famous revolutionary Jatindra N\u00e2th Mukherjee, the first deputy of Sri Aurobindo, author of the armed struggle to liberate India. Throughout his journey, Tejendra had maintained contact with the Chef, who had become the Sage of Pondicherry. Invited by Sri Aurobindo in 1947, Tejendra – along with his wife Ush\u00e2 R\u00e2ni – celebrated August 15th in Pondicherry: the 75th anniversary of the birth of Sri Aurobindo would now also celebrate India\u2019s independence day. When I got back to Calcutta, my parents had only one goal: to let us know about this ashram, this corner of paradise on Earth. Welcomed by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother during our visit a year later, we found our real home there. Rothin was thirteen (born February 1934); me, eleven (born October 1936); Togo (native of December 1937).<\/p>\n

In Calcutta, glad we had been under our roof, surrounded by the love of our parents and cousins. However, unbeknownst to us, we were bruised by an increasingly harsh socio-political life: V2s crossing the sky; the artificial famine created by Winston Churchill following the Great War; pogrom launched by the Muslim League – in power in Bengal reunified by decree of 1911 – against the defenseless Hindu community; mass flight to Calcutta of Hindu refugees chased in East Bengal which became the eastern wing of the new state of Pakistan; assassination of G\u00e2ndhi. On the family level, death of Vinodeb\u00e2l\u00e2 D\u00e9vi, the beloved aunt of Tejendra (we called her Bordi<\/em>), precious as a witness and living memory of the spiritual quest of her brother Jatindra; untimely death of Mishti – “Softness” -, our little sister; the ruthless ravage of the polio virus on my lower limbs: I was five years old. My parents had found their consolation with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother[1]<\/sup><\/a>Sri Aurobindo’s French companion, Blanche Rachel Mirra Alfassa, nicknamed The Mother<\/em>, who was to found, in 1968, Auroville<\/em>: an international pacifist community, North of Pondichery. Cf: From Calcutta to Paris: Prithwindra Mukherjee, the Multi-Dimensions Man<\/em>, 5th May 2020. Available at: https:\/\/contrib.city\/index.php\/2020\/05\/05\/de-calcutta-a-paris-prithwindra-mukherjee-lhomme-aux-multiples-dimensions\/?highlight=M%C3%A8re<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>