ONE HUNDRED TALES FOR TEN THOUSAND BUDDHAS
by Ma Dharm Jyoti
Tale 11
It is pouring
today and Osho has to leave for Poona by the evening flight. He is staying
at the CCI chambers in Bombay proper, and it takes at least one hour to
reach the airport. We set off at 5:00pm. I sit with Laxmi, who is driving
the car, and Taru sits on the back seat with Osho. She is crying for some
reason. The car is passing along Peddar Road and I look outside. The construction
of “Woodlands” building is over.
I tell Osho, “This
building has no thirteenth floor.” He looks at the building and asks Laxmi
to inquire if there is any apartment for sale. Laxmi remains silent. I
know we don’t have any funds to purchase an apartment.
Laxmi turns the radio
on and a voice comes on, “Invest one rupee in lottery ticket and get ten
lakhs in a months!”
Osho laughs and tells
Taru, “ How about buying a lottery ticket?” Her crying turns into laughter.
I don’t know if Taru bought lottery ticket, but we purchased an apartment
in Woodlands for Osho. How it was managed, I don’t know.
It is raining very
heavily but Laxmi is somehow managing to get her way through the traffic
jams, to reach the airport on time. war is going on between India and Pakistan--no
lights are allowed to be put on after sunset. Laxmi manages to reach the
airport in time and we make ourselves comfortable on sofas in the waiting
room.
Today Osho looks pretty
exhausted. More friends have arrived at the airport and it is very noisy.
There is an announcement that the Poona flight is delayed half an hour,
so I go to Osho and ask if He would like some tea and snacks. He agrees
to it and says to get some for everybody. There are about ten of us there.
Tea and snacks are brought and put on the table in the middle of us. The
whole atmosphere becomes festive. We forget about war and blackouts
and enjoy eating and drinking tea with Osho.
We become alert as
an announcement is made that the Poona flight has been delayed another
hour. Now it is too much. It takes only twenty minutes to Poona by plane.
We have already traveled an hour by road and now have waited half an hour
at the airport. In three hours Osho could have reached Poona by car or
train.
We are feeling helpless
and I start imagining how nice it would be if Osho has His own little plane.
It is such a torture to wait at airports for hours. Osho looks at Laxmi
and she says, “Now there is no point in going by road--we have already
waited so long.”
Osho sits back and
seeing us tense starts telling jokes. The last joke He tells is about Mulla
Nasruddin: Mulla is sick and goes to see his doctor. He is waiting and
waiting to be called and finally decides to leave. As he gets up the nurse
comes in and asks, “Mulla, what happened? Why are you laving?”
Mulla answers, “It
is better to die a natural death at home!”
As He finishes the
joke, Osho stands, and we are surprised to hear the announcement
that the Poona flight will be leaving in ten minutes. We are overjoyed.
Osho namastes everyone and starts walking, and I follow Him like a shadow
that can’t imagine being separate from Him. We climb the small staircase
and then He turns back again and waves His hand in good bye to friends
once more.
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