P.P.Doctorjee always felt that Shri Aurobindo Ghosh’s exile from politics and
society was a terrible loss to the Indian Society. Shri Aurobindo had taken
the vows of a sannyaasi (monk) and he was living in Pondicherry. Under the
pretext of inviting him for the annual Congress convention, P.P.Doctorjee
went to Pondicherry, accompanied by Dr. B.S. Moonje. Following incident
occurred in this trip.
After a hearty welcome, Shri Aurobindo invited both P.P.Doctorjee and Dr.
Moonje for lunch; with him. “Are you vegetarian?” – asked Shri Aurobindo of
his guests. Dr. Moonje loved non-vegetarian food, but he was a strict
vegetarian.
In Bengal, “Vegetarian” food commonly includes seafood. Being from Bengal
himself, and charmed by P.P.Doctorjee’s fluent conversation in Bangla (the
language of Bengal), Shri Aurobindo arranged the Bengali “Vegetarian” food
for him. (This contained many seafood dishes.)
The seafood came to P.P.Doctorjee’s notice after it was served on his plate.
Now he was trapped in a problem. He was hungry, but he could not possibly
touch the food. Not noticing his predicament, others around him proceeded to
feast on their food.
Not wishing to demand special attention for himself, P.P.Doctorjee pretended,
as if he was eating. Discussion was free and full of laughter. Since everyone
was deeply absorbed in the conversation, nobody paid any attention to
P.P.Doctorjee’s plate.
P.P.Doctorjee had to remain hungry through that long day, which had come
immediately after the long train journey from Nagpur to Pondicherry. He had
hardly eaten anything during the rail trip, and then the hungry visit topped
it!
Yet, no one could guess this reality looking to the natural effortless cheer
and laughter that personified itself in P.P.Doctorjee. No one in Shri Aurobindo’s
ashram (abode) could even guess what had happened. This shows how particular
P.P.Doctorjee was, about not hurting sentiments of others!
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