149. P.P. Doctorjee’s cheerful smile remained unchanged, even in times of acute hunger:


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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