Mojud Niketan

He was my pal, one of the closest guys in my life. Not lovers, but beloved pals who laughed with me about the funny things in our lives. One of his passions was walking and he walked around Pune for hours. When he was in my neighborhood, German Bakery Road, he’d call me and come up for an hour. He’d sit on a chair under a picture I have of Osho and Vivek – she is gazing at her hand in his beard – and I would sit across the room on my couch and we’d just go on and on chatting and laughing and having fun being together that way… saying how happy we both were with our lives.

Before my cancer operation last year, I asked him if he would be able to take money out of my account each day because I knew I would need an enormous amount for this surgery. So every day for 6 weeks, he would go to the bank and get the cash – 20,000 rupees at a time. He was also helping me by different other ways; I would need, like a new pillowcase, or a new charger for my cell. He’d visit me often in the hospital, sometimes with his Gujarati friends, and perk up the whole room with his beautiful energy. I loved that guy! So sweet, so himself. Always wearing a maroon robe, even though he never went into the Resort – he said he just didn’t have the time. Maybe some time in the future. But he had meditations in his house, friends coming for silent sitting or Kundalini.

He left India in January to be with Susan who was going to have a cancer operation. He was freaked out about the whole visa situation that was chilling the foreigners here. He was excited to be going back to the US to visit, even though he loved India, with no plans just to be out of India for a while. When he wrote that he had changed his name to Mojud, I sent him the story of Mojud from Osho’s talks, and felt that it was a perfect name for him because he was a guy that just followed his heart each day and lived so individually different. For instance, he was in bed at night by 7 o’clock and up at 4 in the morning. I knew never to call him at night! He did his exercises, stretching and meditations in the mornings and emailed early. As an example of how individual he was, I, who sent out jokes to some 200 friends each day, I always received his replies for each one with comments like “WOW” or “good one, Jeevanji” or “ugh!”or a funny picture.

I expected that he would return in the winter although he had enjoyed the cold weather in Wisconsin when he got there. I have a picture of him in the snow which I had kept on my laptop and glanced at it occasionally when I thought about him.

I was a lucky gal to have a pal like Mojud, and am happy he slipped away so easily Full Moon night in August. I miss him lots, and he is in my heart, a forever friend.