28 February

The odd trio at the travellers’ rest house (p. 24- 28)

This journal entry is about the first-person narrator who meets three young Engish who are travelling through India.

The narrator stays at the travellers’ rest-house when the three young person arrive to spend a night there. However, the watchman doesn’t allow them to enter the house so that they have to rest on the verandah. This provides an opportunity to the narrator to start a conversation with the three people. She asks them (one boy and his girlfriend; another young man) about their origin and their reasons why they had come to India.

The couple which is from England, had become very interested in the Hindu religion after attending a lecture by a visiting swami in London.  The swami told them that the Indian religion is deeply connected with the Universal Love, which had a great effect on the couple. Thereupon they went to India straight away to find peace and spirituality. Though in India their dreams didn’t come true, because they made some bad experiences like being robbed or getting cheated.

During their journey they became acquainted with Chid, the third ’part’ of their trio. He too came to India for a spiritual purpose and to become an ascetic. A guru, who also gave him his new Indian name “Chidananda“, helped him to find initiation. Even though he had some problems like running out of money, Chid went on a pilgrimage right across India. He tried to live an ascetic (laid aside his clothes, dressed in an orange robe and shaved his head), but anyway he was never really accepted by the Indians.

Shortly after finishing their story, the watchman allows them to enter the rest-house. From the back verandah the narrator has a view of a Christian graveyard where she catches sight of a grave with a marble angel on it. She knows that this is the grave of the Saunders’ baby and suggests that the travellers’ rest-house must be Mr. and Mrs. Saunders’ house, the Medical Superintendent’s house.