Dortoir

VI — Concluding Words

Here are the names of some of the children who joined the Dortoir in the early years. The names are more or less in the sequence of their arrival.

Lata, Tara, Chitra on the first floor. Narendra, Jitendra, Biju Agrawal on the ground floor.

Later the following children joined: Urmila, Usha, Paru Patil, Arun Kumar, Aruna, Krishna Kumar, Nirakar, Arvind Prasad, Prabhucharan, Arunkant, Arvindbabu, Brajkishore, Urmila Pandya, Kokila, Parul, Badal, Asha and Sudha Umachigi, Tulsa, Mina, Vasudev, Savitri U., Ravibala, Madhusudan, Anjana, Ashok, Kaké, Victor (Chhoté), Hema, Prema, Kavita and others.

At that time the way of life in the Ashram was very simple. Compared to the present day it may even be termed spartan. These little kids away from their parents were left in the Mother’s care. She bestowed on them Her Grace and Love and guidance.

It is interesting to observe that these children were not only taken care of in their study, play, food and sleep, but each child was also given some work to do. Work fitted spontaneously into the child’s everyday routine. Thus there was love in abundance and there was also a discipline to be followed. They would often receive special gifts and food items from the Mother. She personally came to their Boarding on their annual day, 15th January, every year. This was no ordinary hostel. This was the Mother’s Dortoir.

As these children grew up, some of them shifted from the Dortoir to their parents when they settled in Pondicherry. Some others were given separate rooms by the Mother to stay in. Most of these stayed in the “Guest House”. The Guest House now became an extension of the Dortoir and was known as Dortoir Annexe. These children stayed in the Guest House but had their meals in the Dortoir. By this time some older ones felt that they were competent enough to look after the younger members of the Dortoir and they did not need any caretaker for them. Thus, in 1952, when Anu-ben and Kusum-ben left the Dortoir work, the Mother gave the charge of running the Dortoir to Tara Jauhar and Aruna Pandya, both eighteen years old then. Tara had her room in the Guest House but the Mother had asked Aruna to stay back in the Dortoir and look after the very young ones. After December 1964, a new batch of children came to stay in Dortoir and Parul and Kokila were now given the charge of running the place.

In 1976 the children of this Dortoir were shifted to different buildings and the building was demolished for the construction of a new structure for Physical Education purposes. The new house where the girls were shifted is now known as the Dortoir.

Presently the students are accommodated in different houses. They are divided according to their age. A few students stay in each house with one or two caretakers looking after their needs. All of them go to the “Corner House” — a special kitchen-cum-dining arrangement for students and teachers.

The photo above was taken sometime in 1947 with the early boarders of Dortoir. Standing Row: Lata jauhar, Anu Ben Purani (warden) Kusumben Nagda (warden), Paru Patil, Urmila R Patel. Middle Row: Aruna Pandya, Tara Jauhar, Usha R Patel. Sitting Row: Kokila Pandya, Chitra Jauhar, Sumedha, Purnima Jauhar.

Group photograph taken on the occasion of Dortoir’s Fiftieth Anniversary on 15 January 1995 with the early boarders of Dortoir seated and standing in the same position as in the photograph taken in 1947.