Letters from India - Part 2

29. Letter to Barbara - Dec 1990

Letter to Barbara

December 1990 Prasanthi Nilayam

Dear Barbarakka!

Sai Ram, I received your letter dated 9 November in mid-December. What an effort you put into it! All those pages and questions! But you will be rewarded (fruits of actions, the things we must be detached from!). That is exactly the type of letter (questions especially) that inspires me to write many pages.

I think it was about the museum tragedy in the letter before last to you, that I so rudely ended mid-sentence to hurriedly send it off to USA, because someone was leaving just at that moment.

Well, our so-nice Bonnie was also one who got crushed by the ill-made Gopuram, her blood also marred the tiles of the museum (forgive me for being, uh, attached, shall we say). Joan Brown, Bonnie Mainrich and one boy Michael (24 years old, also from San Francisco Center) were working all day on a big huge (15 foot) sculpted stupa, for about one or two months beforehand. Joan had made one like it and it seems that Swami had seen a picture of it (in Jan 1990, about) and told Joan that He also wanted one, with a moat and all, to be centerpiece in the upcoming museum. Joan returned to USA and sculpted it with small tiles, and returned here bringing it in huge crates, in great grand style (it was transferred from Bombay to Puttaparthi in a lorry). Thus Joan, Bonnie and Michael set to work reassembling and painting it. In the center of the museum, as wished by Sai.

Meanwhile, the museum's 3-stories were pretty much complete, and the workers were hard at work completing the three gopurams towering above. Later I found that the Madras contractor had made the gopurams faulty, too heavy for their foundation. The museum was like the Round Buildings, as it was empty in the middle, floors going around the center.

They had just cemented the tops of the gopurams. Swami informed the contractors one or more of the following (depending on who you talk to) three full days before it happened:

1. Middle gopuram needed weight reduced by 50%

2. Middle gopuram needed a bar placed through its center because it was too heavy

3. No one was to go into museum for three days (while the cement dried)

So, everyone left, workers and all, for three days. The front door was barred shut with those wonderful Indian sticks (logs?). There were several foreigners, painting signs outside the museum.

Meanwhile, Joan and Michael had been hard at work daily. Bonnie had gone to Bangalore for a few days before, to look after a sick cancer patient in Bangalore (one Mataji from Malaysia, she died two months later). Bonnie had returned the night before it happened.

Swami had been coming regularly to see the museum's work, and also theirs. He made comments like, "Oh! The deer's eye is nice!" or, "Change that yellow color to blue," etc. His attention, of course, thrilled and inspired them.

Now, they were warned with folded hands by the contractor himself, not to enter the museum for three days. Swami ordered it, etc. They said, "Only a few minutes more work and we'll complete it," "Swami will protect us," etc. The three of them, and one other lady from Mexico - boldly entered through the barred doors and began completing the Stupa. After sometime the outside foreigners invited them to go to lunch, they were immersed in their work and refused. The others left.

About 2pm, the middle gopuram top, right above their heads, crashed to the ground suddenly. Joan was hit worst - her and her stupa were in bits scattered around, instantly killed. Bonnie was instantly killed. Michael had injuries to his neck and chest. The Mexico lady had been several yards away from the others, she was unhurt, not even scratched. She began to call names - only Michael answered. She dug him out and he was rushed to Bangalore hospital by van. He died mid-way. Susan Caffery and Carol Goodpasture (of SF Center - she had arrived with Bonnie the night before) were called in to identify the bodies.