![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thenortherngazette.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Dutta2.jpg\")
It was impossible for Yogini to understand that Mr Datta had done no such thing. Her rates had sky<\/p>\n
rocketed and so her old- time customers sought out cheaper accommodation in the village. Hans<\/p>\n
Peter was no different. Most of the locals believed foreigners were gold mines who could be<\/p>\n
extracted endlessly. Mr Datta never once asked Hans Peter to pay for those meals though he was<\/p>\n
free to make a contribution if he so desired.<\/p>\n
The highlight of the year for Mr Datta was when Peter and wife Beatrice, took him and Gita, a<\/p>\n
Ganeshpuri resident who helped implement their charitable programs, to a nearby destination. One<\/p>\n
year they went to visit Mahabaleshwar. On another occasion, they went to the Ajanta Ellora caves<\/p>\n
and during one winter, Mr. Datta travelled to the sea coast to Kanhangad where Swami Nityanand<\/p>\n
used to live before making his way to Ganeshpuri.<\/p>\n
I kept running into Mr Datta on my visits. In one of our chats, he mentioned he was finding<\/p>\n
Ganeshpuri very hot in the summer months and was looking for a place to stay in the hills. I had a<\/p>\n
place in Dehra Dun which was kept under lock and key because I had a full- time job in Delhi and did<\/p>\n
not have the time or wherewithal to run two establishments.<\/p>\n
It was around this time that Babaji directed me to take care of him and so I arranged for him to<\/p>\n
come to Delhi from where I escorted him to Dun. The house was opened up after a gap of several<\/p>\n
years. Mr Datta must have faced teething problems in settling down in this new town. After all his<\/p>\n
base was Ganeshpuri but he never complained. Perhaps it was a relief for him to be living in a house<\/p>\n
with a garden surrounded by fruit trees and not be cooped up in a congested flat.<\/p>\n
His routine whether in Dehradun or Ganeshpuri never varied. Mornings were devoted to meditation,<\/p>\n
yoga and house work which included cooking. In Ganeshpuri, the afternoons were devoted to<\/p>\n
teaching English to adults and children across different age groups. His students included a scooter<\/p>\n
driver, a trainee electrician and of course many, many village boys. They would troop into his flat<\/p>\n
every day and I think he enjoyed their company as they did his. He never charged them for these<\/p>\n
classes.<\/p>\n
In Dehra Dun I prodded him to start holding Yoga classes. But not one of his students, however<\/p>\n
affluent, ever bothered to pay him and he himself was incapable of asking anyone for money. One<\/p>\n
of his students, Devender, loves to recount how he came to Mr Datta for meditation classes. Being a<\/p>\n
student, he was apprehensive about how much he would have to pay. Every day he would ask, ` How<\/p>\n
much do you charge?\u2019 to which Mr Datta would reply, ` We\u2019ll see. Learn to focus your mind. That is<\/p>\n
more important.\u2019<\/p>\n
After a fortnight of these classes, Mr Datta had to leave for Ganeshpuri. When Devender asked him<\/p>\n
yet again how much he should pay for those fifteen days, he was told, ` Whatever for? We have not<\/p>\n
even completed one month of meditation.\u2019<\/p>\n
And that in essence was the man. He had no money but even when it was being offered, he did not<\/p>\n
take it. It simply was not important for him.<\/p>\n
Initially, he knew no one in Dehra Dun. I therefore suggested that he spend his mornings at the<\/p>\n
Songsten Tibetan library close to my house. The library\u2019s architecture is inspired by Yumbu Lhakar<\/p>\n
(yum bu lha mkhar), Tibet\u2019s oldest known building, popularly known as Tibet\u2019s first castle, predating<\/p>\n
the era of Songsten Gampo. A beautiful place built on a hillside overlooking the Sahastradhara river,<\/p>\n
the library boasts of a huge collection of rare Tibetan manuscripts and audio recordings of the<\/p>\n
teachings of Tibetan masters. Mr Datta took to spending a couple of hours there each day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gradually, Dehra Dun began to grow on him and he began to love exploring the city. He loved taking<\/p>\n
walks along the main Sahasradhara road which had a canopy of pilkhan, sal and silver oak trees<\/p>\n
growing on both sides. Pilkhan is a magnificent tree with a wide canopy. It provides shade and was<\/p>\n
home to all manner of birds and insects. It broke his heart when these trees, many years later, were<\/p>\n
chopped down to broaden an already broad road.<\/p>\n
On Sunday mornings, he would hop into the city bus which took him to Parade Ground in the centre<\/p>\n
of the city. A make shift bazaar would come up here every Sunday selling clothes, shoes and<\/p>\n
household items at threadbare rates. In Ganeshpuri, he used to wear a white kurta pyjama but in<\/p>\n
Dehra Dun he decided he was more comfortable wearing jeans and a T shirts and so bought himself<\/p>\n
a small wardrobe of second- hand clothes.<\/p>\n
The Dehra Dun of 2012 was very different from the Dehra Dun of today. Back then, we could see the<\/p>\n
Mussoorie hills stretching out on a stately line outside our house. A majestic sun could be seen rising<\/p>\n
from the hills that rose about the Sahastradhara river front and every evening, the western sky<\/p>\n
would be set aflame with a magnificent sun set. The view of the mountains has now been replaced<\/p>\n
by the huge housing complex that goes by the name of Pacific Golf Estate.<\/p>\n
Dehra Dun was not just about beautiful sights and sightings. It could boast of excellent bakeries<\/p>\n
some of which remain unmatched to this day. After much persuasion, he agreed to visit Sunrise<\/p>\n
Bakery located in Ghosi gali, one of the bylanes off the arterial Paltan Bazaar and not far from<\/p>\n
Parade Ground. A minimalist, he finally got around to spending money on cake rusks, ribbed Atta<\/p>\n
biscuits and freshly baked bread. Ganeshpuri had no bakeries and its residents had to make do with<\/p>\n
two grocery shops. I remember being surprised to learn that a daily commodity such as bread was<\/p>\n
not being sold there.<\/p>\n
He also spent much time in the garden of my house. He was an avid gardener with green fingers.<\/p>\n
Rangers College was located next to Parade Grounds and he took to visiting its nursery in order to<\/p>\n
buy seedlings and saplings from there. He however found it difficult to plan a garden and everything<\/p>\n
was grown in a haphazard manner. He hated my insistence on weeds being removed as he felt<\/p>\n
weeds helped to bind the soil. His funda was to try and get plants free of cost and then plant them<\/p>\n
wherever he fancied. Fortunately, Rangers College was a government-run institute and its rates for<\/p>\n
seedlings and saplings were reasonable.<\/p>\n
I often fumed at his lack of style and aesthetics. Not one to take kindly to criticism, his standard reply<\/p>\n
after I had vented my spleen was, ` I\u2019ll remove all of them if that is what you want.\u2019 He used to spend<\/p>\n
his time reading about gardening and agriculture and was very taken in by hanging gardens.<\/p>\n
Another characteristic of his was that he could not throw away even a scrap of paper. His mantra<\/p>\n
was that everything could be reutilised. He had read that cardboard made good manure so sheets of<\/p>\n
cardboard were dug into the soil. He also believed that not a drop of water should be wasted and so<\/p>\n
RO waste water would be collected in large utensils and then used to water the plants.<\/p>\n
He planted a gourd called `chau chau\u2019 which is widely grown in Mauritius but the conservative<\/p>\n
Garhwali family that lived as domestics on the premises refused to eat.<\/p>\n
What gave Mr Datta a great deal of happiness was to be taken to another landmark of Dehra Dun,<\/p>\n
the iconic Rajpur road where were located the ashrams of revered saints including Anandmayi Ma<\/p>\n
and Swami Ramakrishna. Both these ashrams are located on the foothills of the Himalayas and in the<\/p>\n
evenings, the twinkling lights of Mussoorie can be seen from there. Sadly, like most of Dehra Dun,<\/p>\n
the surrounding houses on Rajpur road have been sold to builders who have wasted no time in<\/p>\n
pulling these single storey, residential homes and replaced by commercial structures adding to the<\/p>\n
noise and pollution in the city.<\/p>\n
Upkeep of a large property is an expensive business. I had kept a chowkidar to look after the house. I<\/p>\n
had his salary to pay plus all kinds of maintenance costs. I therefore decided to rent a portion of the<\/p>\n
house that would help in meeting growing expenses. I also had three rooms built on the first floor.<\/p>\n
The construction workers were only too happy to take the chau chau after completing their day\u2019s<\/p>\n
work. Mr Datta decided to make pakoras for these workers as a New Year gift. I have never seen the<\/p>\n
labourers look so delighted in their life!<\/p>\n
He was self- sufficient, happy, doing everything himself including his cooking, dish washing, washing<\/p>\n
of clothes and ironing and of course shopping. He must have missed Mauritian food because he<\/p>\n
would turn nostalgic about the way biryani was cooked back home. He made excellent biryani but<\/p>\n
this involved a great deal of effort. As he grew older, he stopped cooking the more complicated<\/p>\n
Mauritian dishes.<\/p>\n
Something of a handy man, he loved tinkering around the house. However, since he kept everything,<\/p>\n
one of my first jobs on every visit to Dehra Dun was to clear up the clutter. Old pipes, old wires, old<\/p>\n
bottles, etc, etc. His justification was, ` I don\u2019t believe in waste.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Bone honest in his handling of money, it was obvious that being a sadak had taught him discipline. It<\/p>\n
also taught him self-effacement. Despite possessing a great deal of understanding and insight into<\/p>\n
spiritual matters, he seldom spoke on these subjects. Several hours were spent watching J.<\/p>\n
Krishnamurti and Sadhguru videos. In Ganeshpuri, where he went every winter, he and his close<\/p>\n
friend the late Dr Shirodkar spent a lot of time discussing the nuances of his teachings.<\/p>\n
He seldom spoke about his past. Not once did he inform me that he came from a large family and<\/p>\n
was one amongst thirteen brothers and sisters. Nor about the fact that he had been a swami in<\/p>\n
Mauritius. On a couple of occasions I did ask him why he had chosen not to get married. His reply<\/p>\n
was, ` I was a very convoluted person. I was introduced to a few women but somehow that did not<\/p>\n
work out.\u2019<\/p>\n
His sister-in-law, Liseby. informed me after his death that he had been in love with a woman but she<\/p>\n
was arrogant. He realised she would not have taken care of his mother in the way that he would<\/p>\n
have liked. The relationship broke up. Maybe it was this heartbreak that led him to spend more time<\/p>\n
in meditation and yoga.<\/p>\n
His family was not at all happy when he sold the family house to a cousin who in Liseby\u2019s words,<\/p>\n
`enjoyed this sale as a sign of his superiority over the family\u2019. Among his last wishes was if he could<\/p>\n
get the house back in exchange for his land but the cousin\u2019s family was not interested. `The family,<\/p>\n
especially his brothers and sisters believed that he had been `manipulated\u2019 and never forgave him<\/p>\n
for selling the family house.<\/p>\n
Mr. Datta was a simpleton at heart, because he allowed the ashram manager Mr Verma to ease<\/p>\n
him out of the ashram, something he had worked so hard to set up. He gave power of attorney of<\/p>\n
his land to Mr Verma who was to ensure that his pension reached every month. It was only when he<\/p>\n
returned to Mauritius in 2023 that he realised that he was being cheated on that score and that the<\/p>\n
full amount of pension was not being given to him.<\/p>\n
I must confess that Mr. Datta was extremely supportive towards me. He looked after the house and<\/p>\n
also kept a stern eye on the tenants. Whenever I visited Dehra Dun, I would follow my usual routine<\/p>\n
of writing freelance analytical pieces for dailies and online publications. I would make him read my<\/p>\n
articles before I sent them off for publication and he never refused even though I am sure he found<\/p>\n
them very boring. He soon fell into a routine — nine months of the year in Dehra Dun and three<\/p>\n
winter months in Ganeshpuri.<\/p>\n
During the Covid lockdown I was for a long time stuck in Dehra Dun. It was a quiet peaceable time<\/p>\n
for us. I kept busy researching and writing. However, Mr. Datta must have found the Covid worries<\/p>\n
and the isolation unnerving. Post Covid, he had a nervous breakdown. He would start crying and<\/p>\n
hardly ate anything. One day, he came out of his room, announced that he was leaving, showed me<\/p>\n
an empty wallet to assure me that he was not taking anything with him. Before I knew it, he had<\/p>\n
opened the gate and walked out.<\/p>\n
Terrified that he might just disappear into the blue, I sent my domestic Rajni and her brother Raman<\/p>\n
after him. Fortunately, he returned safe and sound two hours later, lay down in his room and went<\/p>\n
to sleep. This happened a few weeks after the Covid lockdown had ended. I decided to ask a lady<\/p>\n
psychiatrist to visit him in the house. She was an attractive looking lady and Mr Datta had a<\/p>\n
comfortable conversation with her which continued over lunch and coffee. She went away three<\/p>\n
hours later with a fat fee and a contented smile.<\/p>\n I realised later that what Mr Datta missed was having ‘Sadhaks’ around with whom he could meditate<\/p>\n and discuss theological and philosophical matters. That was his life. Once I asked him to pray for my<\/p>\n family to which he replied, ` I\u2019m a ‘Sadhak’. I pray for the whole of mankind.\u2019 On another occasion, he<\/p>\n was doing his yoga when he had a kriya and his arm began moving reflexively for he had no control<\/p>\n over its movement. Scared, I went and held it to which he said, ` You should not disturb me. It is a<\/p>\n kriya, it will pass.\u2019<\/p>\n In 2022, some dog lovers contacted me asking if I could provide a home for an unwanted female pup<\/p>\n whose name was Tunu. My apprehensions were soon put to rest because Mr Datta doted on her and<\/p>\n spoiled her silly. She could do no wrong and was even allowed to sit on the dining table!! During our<\/p>\n trips to the vet, on two occasions, Tunu vomited on Mr Datta who did not utter one word of protest.<\/p>\n In January 2023, Mr Datta did me a great favour by asking me to buy a small flat in Ganeshpuri that<\/p>\n someone was in a hurry to sell. I used to spend six to eight weeks in winter at Ganeshpuri but I had<\/p>\n never thought of buying a property there.<\/p>\n `It is going very cheap. It\u2019s a distress sale,\u2019 he informed me.<\/p>\n I had inherited a small sum of money from the sale of my parent\u2019s house. I bought the flat and<\/p>\n renovated it on a shoe-string budget. An Indian style bathroom was converted to the western style,<\/p>\n two geysers were added as were some other fixtures. We bought some plants from a nearby nursery<\/p>\n all of which were stolen once Mr Datta returned to Dehra Dun.<\/p>\n I had no idea about his religious past. On August 8, 2022, Yogini Shubh Veer passed away in<\/p>\n Mauritius. It must have been heartrending for him but he never spoke about it. Some weeks later,<\/p>\n when I got down from the train at the Dehra Dun railway station, a very dishevelled and unhappy<\/p>\n looking Mr Datta arrived to pick me up. Grief stricken is the word that would describe his state.<\/p>\n That evening he asked me whether I would write about a woman saint who had died in Mauritius<\/p>\n but whose body, many weeks after her death, had not deteriorated. She had been buried along with<\/p>\n her German Shepherd dog whose name was Jet and his body too had remained intact. My reply that<\/p>\n no one in India would be interested in this news must have disappointed him but he let it go.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n His nephews informed him that following the Yogini\u2019s death, the manager Dr Verma was trying to<\/p>\n usurp his share of the land in La Fayette and he should return to Mauritius to ensure that he did not<\/p>\n lose his hold on this prime property. And so, twenty years after he came to India, in February 2023,<\/p>\n Mr Datta returned to his homeland. I was surprised when he informed me that he was staying with a<\/p>\n nephew.<\/p>\n `Why not your own home?\u2019 I asked him.<\/p>\n It was then that he told me that he had sold his home and moved to an ashram. I was taken aback<\/p>\n because I had believed I had known him very well but there was much that he had not revealed to<\/p>\n bought books in Port Louis and also to reconnect with his family. He went to the community centre<\/p>\n where he had worked and he was delighted to find how transformed the place had become. A new<\/p>\n building, a snooker table, a swimming pool and many other facilities had been provided for the<\/p>\n common citizens. He returned with a lot of photographs which he shared with his students<\/p>\n expressing his unhappiness at how we lacked similar centres at the village level.<\/p>\n In 2024, he went back to Mauritius for a six month stay as this enabled him to get the old age<\/p>\n pension being given to Mauritian citizens and also to sell his land. He had his ashram land<\/p>\n demarcated and made a will under the guidance of another nephew who was an attorney. Again,<\/p>\n not once did he inform me of the contents of the will, nor did I ask.<\/p>\n He returned in September to have a hernia operation. And that was the beginning of a horror story<\/p>\n for both of us. The hernia operation went off well but other complications developed. It turned out<\/p>\n he had myeloma. He was put on dialysis and his condition was deteriorating. Three months after his<\/p>\n arrival, he declared that he wanted to return to his own country. But he also wanted to see<\/p>\n Dehradun once before he left for Mauritius. I wish I had taken him. I was convinced he would get<\/p>\n better and once that happened, I would take him there.<\/p>\n For him the thought of returning to Mauritius without having paid a visit to Dehradun proved<\/p>\n extremely traumatic. He sent me this Whatsapp message:<\/p>\n `Its lost, my Paradise is lost.<\/p>\n I will never taste my jackfruit which I grew. Oh my god.<\/p>\n The guava, the avocado, the lime\u2026.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll never see the boundary wall again.\u2019<\/p>\n I wrote him this note before he left. `The most precious of men. The most understanding. So<\/p>\n affectionate, so kind hearted, so helpful. For me, more precious than any Kohinoor. Dehra Dun will<\/p>\n never be the same. For me, you were the embodiment of Dehradun.\u2019<\/p>\n My last conversation with Mr. Datta was on December 11 was when I asked him how he was doing.<\/p>\n He replied, ` Not good.\u2019<\/p>\n On December 12, his nephew informed me that he had gone into a coma. I drove to our small<\/p>\n satsang centre in Tun Valley in Dehra Dun and prayed to Swami Nityananda to end his suffering and<\/p>\n give him moksha. He died in Mauritius two days later. For his final journey, he was dressed in an<\/p>\n orange kurta and pyjama. We performed a hawan for him the next day in Dehradun.<\/p>\n In January, a second hawan was performed for him in Ganeshpuri. I had deliberately kept it for a<\/p>\n Sunday to allow his former students to attend. Not one of them showed up. Members of our<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nityanand housing society where he had lived all these years were also invited. Barring one family,<\/p>\n no one came. I found that surprising because he had spent twenty years in this town. Hans Peter<\/p>\n also had a hawan performed for him in February. Four of us attended it and it went off quietly.<\/p>\n Everyone in the village speaks so highly of him and yet people on whom he had bestowed hours of<\/p>\n his life could not find time to attend his final prayers. I suppose that is the way of the world. Our<\/p>\n lives do not end with a bang but with a whimper. We have little appreciation for those who are not<\/p>\n in the business of acquiring wealth or high status. But there are a few people who form a deep<\/p>\n relationship with the Other and it is this Other that sustains them through their life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From Mauritius to Dehra Dun with devotion, spirituality and love By Rashme Sehgal Dehradun, Oct 12 Mr Datta was a deeply spiritual man. His full name was Banoouduth Boolauky but everyone knew him as Mr Datta. Religiosity defined his persona. It was the moving force of his life. Everything else was of secondary importance. Nothing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,33,1284,91,59],"tags":[148,3516,3308,3515],"class_list":["post-7442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-international-political-national","category-national","category-uttarakhand","tag-dehradun","tag-ganeshpuri","tag-mauritius","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thenortherngazette.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Dutta3.jpg\")
\n