28 February

A young girl named Minu came to offer her pranam to Nolini-da early in the morning. She was born in Chittagong and I had studied with her for about eight months at the Sri Aurobindo Vidya Pith there. She was quite a brilliant student. She came to Nolini-da for his blessings. After she left, he asked me what her name was. I told him that I had studied with her for a few months in our village and that her name was Minu.

"That cannot be her real name. What is her real name?" he said.

"I don't remember what her real name is."

"You studied with her and you do not know her real name?"

Quite embarrassed, I went out looking for Minu. I found her near Sri Aurobindo's Samadhi. I asked her what her real name was and she said it was Amiya.

When I told Nolini-da, he said with a smile: "There is no dearth of Amiya (nectar) at the Ashram, but God alone knows when He will bless us with divine nectar."

In the afternoon, while I was typing in the flower-room, Nolini-da came up to me and said: "Did Rajan tell you that I had enjoyed your article "Ramakrishna, Soul of the East" in the Amrita Bazar?"

"Yes, he did."

"It seems that you worked hard on that article. It is always good to work hard when you write something, especially before you send it for publication."