After the operation, the doctor came in and informed me of the operation's having been successfully concluded. Then she asked, "Would you like to see the specimen?" It goes without saying that I was expecting her to ask whether I wanted to see the patient. Hearing her question and without thinking twice, I figured she had an, um, interesting, and rather clinical way of referring to the patient. As the doors of the operation room opened, I was presented with the object cut out, neatly placed on a tray. "Uh, okay, could I please see the rest of the specimen now?"

Today is the first day she's been able to walk around, she's off the tubes and moving around a bit. It's just liquids for now, her stomach is a bit on the weak side, as is always the case after operations like this. I've been preparing light methi (spinach) soups for her to get some more iron into her blood, it's been on the low side since a long time. Today, walking around, I found some mint and parsley, both surprise discoveries in Vrindavana. It turns out we'll be staying here until the end of the month on doctor's recommendation. The bumpy road to Radha-kunda isn't exactly your preferred post-operation treatment, nor is going up and down the most comfortable thing to do, should a need to meet the doctor prior to the end of the month surface. By the end of the month, 28th or 1st, out go the stitches of her belly and we return to our dear Radha-kunda.

The other day I bumped into Dhanurdhara Swami as I walked across the Krishna Balaram yard to get a canister of filtered water. Through a twist of destiny we had been in touch last fall, once via phone and then over several e-mails, both related and unrelated to the original reason of our touching base. A bit further along the way, I invited him over to visit us at Radha-kunda when he was over at Govardhana. Swami came across to me as a thoughtful, gentle and deep individual. Yes we all have a history, and his is particularly well propagated across the internet — and he's gone through nothing short of a small hell over it, experiences I gather have made him grow immensely in many ways. I refuse to believe in unredeemable acts, saints are forged in purgatory fires.

Swami invited me over to visit his place at Radha Raman Bagicha. He's staying upstairs at Gunagrahi Swami's place in a peaceful and rather idyllic environment. A bit short of two hours of quality discussion on all things sundry and bhajana in particular reminded me, once again, of the fact that valuable points of view and worthy tidbits of wisdom rarely look at the shape of your tilaka or the color of your cloth. As Dhanurdhara Swami saw me out, we bumped into Gunagrahi Swami. Realizing I had no merits worth grasping, he greeted me with the briefest haribol and moved on with Dhanurdhara Ji to wherever it was they were going to. I walked down the lane, rattling my beads, enjoying the serene atmosphere off the main streets of Raman Reti, humored by a thought on how the Swami downstairs acted true to his name.