Amma 2008

Amma was in London on October 26-28th. On 25th there was the AR Rahman music evening at Rasa Restaurant at Holiday Inn, near Kings Cross; Santhi was waiting for us there. Divya and Sumesh too came with us. It took us a bit of time to reach Kings Cross because of the heavy central London traffic on a Friday. Parked our car just outside the hotel. The music night had already began when we reached there. The hall is rather small and so sound effects were not great. I would say the music was average; but Manoj's tabla and Suraj's performance were great. The food was good too...

On 26th morning we went to Alexandra palace. This time rather than Darshan tokens( which were already given away by the time we reached there) we were given different coloured cards. The idea was that if time permits we Amma would give us Darshan in the morning; otherwise it will be in the evening. Met Prasad and family, who did not want to stay too long as Kannan was getting upset. Nitin and family had also come. All of them were very overwhelmed with emotions after the Darshan especially his parents.

Amma asked all of us to sit near her after Darshan. Somehow just sitting there or spending time in her presence gives a nice feeling. Santhi had come as I insisted. But Amma on seeing him asked Santhi to stand near her for some time. He stood there for rest of Darshan that morning. Amma also told him to be there that evening. Met Renuka chechi; She is a Swamini who works as a supervisor in one of Amma's institutions in Perumbavoor (originally from Kannur). She had relatives in Grimsby too. In the afternoon we went to the washing area and did seva by washing all the waste plates. Amma's Prabhashanam in the evening was as usual in simple words. Stayed at Sumesh's flat that evening.

The next day too we went to Alexandra palace. I did not plan to go there, but just felt like seeing Amma again. Bhavani Chechi kindly gave us darshan tokens when I told her that we will be returning that evening and are not staying for Devi-bhava the next day. Darshan was great and when Amma was returning after the morning Darshan at around 17:00 hours, she came and stopped near me and asked how I was and asked specifically about Santhi! Vava at that time asked about Arathy

That evening we did Seva at the food stall. Manikutty was helping with serving the sweets! It was a nice feeling just being there. Mani took her new friend Eve (from Scotland) to the stage and was seen chatting to Amma. She gave Amma the pictures she had drawn. It seems she asked Amma whether she could stay with Amma for ever!! Amma just smiled back.....
Reached Leicester well past mid-night....

"May the tree of our life
Be firmly rooted in the soil of love,
Let good deeds be the leaves on that tree.
May words of kindness form its flowers
And may peace be its fruits"

Amma