My friend Mr. Gruber5
When I came to New York, my dearest Russian friend was Mr. Gruber. He was a Jewish man, eighty-four years old. He became my friend when he came to the Indian Consulate.For some reason I asked Mr. Gruber, “Is your father alive?”
He said, “Oh, no!”
Since he himself was over eighty, I said, “What kind of question am I asking you?”
Then he said, “Have you heard the name ‘Hitler’?”
I said, “Yes!”
“He took very nice care of my father.”
Mr. Gruber invited me to watch him ice skating in Manhattan. There was a very small skating rink and I went to watch him. Can you imagine, he was over eighty and how smart he was! I was admiring him immensely!
Mr. Gruber took me to a poetry reading inside a restaurant in Manhattan. The name of the restaurant was Cervantes. People were drinking and smoking and from time to time some poets would stand up and recite their poems. I also stood up. I did not eat anything or drink anything. I had brought with me three or four poems and I stood up to read my poems.
One lady was very kind. She liked my poems. She invited me to come to her place with Mr. Gruber on a Sunday, so we went there. At that time I brought ten or twelve poems to read out. She liked them and appreciated them.
At least one lady was kind enough to appreciate my poems! Mine were spiritual poems. When the other poets were reading out their poems, I did not understand a word they were saying! Perhaps they also did not understand my poems.
ITU 5. 22 December 2004, Qingdao, China↩
