An Encounter With Spirituality - Part III

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My rashness exposed me to the electric shock. This great experiment was conducted by this not-yet-famous scientist in the house of an engineer when my mother took this young (and rash) genius while visiting that engineer's wife! Fortunately, he was not at home and that lady was more worried about my safety than the blown fuse! Did I learn the lesson of being more careful! Probably not! The houses where we stayed did not have electricity, drainage and drinking water till we moved to Hyderabad in 1962, by which time, I was 14 years old and a little wiser about personal safety. But not much wiser as you will see below. Sai Ram.

But the opportunities to get into trouble increased with age. When we were in Chirala (from 1960 September to 1962 May), my elder brother (who was two and a half years elder to me and was always sober and gentle and surprisingly my good friend - we were called Lav and Kush or Ram and Laxman) and I decided to learn riding a bicycle. Well, we were too poor to buy a bicycle but took it on rent

and started learning with the help of another friend. We were famously called Swamy trio as already mentioned, I was named Venkateswara Swamy, my brother was named as Narasimha Swamy and our friend's name was Veera Swamy! Though he was of a different caste, we all moved as brothers and studied together and at times ate together. Returning to the bicycle riding part: My brother learnt it easily without falling too many times and without getting much hurt. I was as usual, rash and fell several times, injuring my self and that poor bicycle! Sai Ram.

In 1962, when we came to Hyderabad, my eldest brother had a good bicycle and since I was also joining college (yes, at 14, I joined B.Sc first year!), which was about 2 or 3 kilometers away, he bought another bicycle for me and my brother. My brother joined the Polytechnic in Vijayawada and so I had the use of that bicycle mostly to myself. I had two nasty falls and got badly bruised each time and the bicycle too suffered severe damage but again thanks to the Grace that was always flowing and protecting me from my own rashness, I did not suffer any fracture or head injury.

When I shifted to University to pursue B.Sc (Special) program in 1963, I had to use the State Transport bus since the distance was more. Once I tried getting into a running bus and missed the foot-board and fell down on the concrete road injuring myself badly. The bus stopped and I boarded it, went to college with the bleeding wounds, got some first aid done and later as the pain was unbearable returned home, frightening my poor mother.

Read more experiences on the next page