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100 Tales For 10,000 Buddhas

Tale 11

It is pouring today and Osho has to leave for Poona by the evening flight. He is staying at the CCI chambers in Bombay proper, and it takes at least one hour to reach the airport. We set off at 5:00pm. I sit with Laxmi, who is driving the car, and Taru sits on the back seat with Osho. She is crying for some reason. The car is passing along Peddar Road and I look outside. The construction of “Woodlands” building is over.

I tell Osho, “This building has no thirteenth floor.” He looks at the building and asks Laxmi to inquire if there is any apartment for sale. Laxmi remains silent. I know we don’t have any funds to purchase an apartment.

Laxmi turns the radio on and a voice comes on, “Invest one rupee in lottery ticket and get ten lakhs in a months!”

Osho laughs and tells Taru, “ How about buying a lottery ticket?” Her crying turns into laughter. I don’t know if Taru bought lottery ticket, but we purchased an apartment in Woodlands for Osho. How it was managed, I don’t know.

It is raining very heavily but Laxmi is somehow managing to get her way through the traffic jams, to reach the airport on time. war is going on between India and Pakistan--no lights are allowed to be put on after sunset. Laxmi manages to reach the airport in time and we make ourselves comfortable on sofas in the waiting room.

Today Osho looks pretty exhausted. More friends have arrived at the airport and it is very noisy. There is an announcement that the Poona flight is delayed half an hour, so I go to Osho and ask if He would like some tea and snacks. He agrees to it and says to get some for everybody. There are about ten of us there. Tea and snacks are brought and put on the table in the middle of us. The whole atmosphere becomes festive. We forget about war and blackouts and enjoy eating and drinking tea with Osho.

We become alert as an announcement is made that the Poona flight has been delayed another hour. Now it is too much. It takes only twenty minutes to Poona by plane. We have already traveled an hour by road and now have waited half an hour at the airport. In three hours Osho could have reached Poona by car or train.

We are feeling helpless and I start imagining how nice it would be if Osho has His own little plane. It is such a torture to wait at airports for hours. Osho looks at Laxmi and she says, “Now there is no point in going by road--we have already waited so long.”

Osho sits back and seeing us tense starts telling jokes. The last joke He tells is about Mulla Nasruddin: Mulla is sick and goes to see his doctor. He is waiting and waiting to be called and finally decides to leave. As he gets up the nurse comes in and asks, “Mulla, what happened? Why are you laving?”

Mulla answers, “It is better to die a natural death at home!”

As He finishes the joke, Osho stands, and we are surprised to hear the announcement that the Poona flight will be leaving in ten minutes. We are overjoyed. Osho namastes everyone and starts walking, and I follow Him like a shadow that can’t imagine being separate from Him. We climb the small staircase and then He turns back again and waves His hand in good bye to friends once more.