Cool Hand Luke

One night Guru invited Ashrita and me to his house. Usually at around 11:00 or 11:30 p.m. Guru closes up shop and everyone has to go home. But on this particular night Guru didn't ask us to leave. Since Guru wasn't asking us to do anything, we couldn't even figure out why we were at Guru's house. Guru said he was going downstairs to speak to the girls who were working on a project in the basement, and that we could watch television. Guru has never since that time said that I could just watch television. We turned the television on and started switching the channels. For our taste, the best programme was Cool Hand Luke, starring Paul Newman. We were in ecstasy watching Cool Hand Luke at Guru's house. Every now and then, Guru would come upstairs and sit down and casually look at the television for a while, but he really was not interested in it. The show was over at around 3 or 4 a.m., and still Guru didn't tell us to go home. There wasn't very much on at that hour, but Guru didn't say not to watch, so we kept looking at different shows. Finally, at 5 a.m., Guru was sitting in his chair looking at the television when we turned it to Channel 5. There was Guru playing the esraj and offering a message on Channel 5! Guru was very happy to see himself, and we were very happy to see him. Guru asked us who was responsible for his being on television and we told him. Then Guru called the disciple who had arranged it, and offered all his blessings to that disciple. After that, Guru told us to go home and get some sleep.

Databir (New York)