Breaking British tradition

The other day in the dining room at breakfast time, there was a British colony! Ongkar, Sanjaya, Kaivalya and Sanjaya’s son were all there. You cannot imagine how heartily and how powerfully they were laughing. The way they were laughing, even the skies were trembling! Absolutely everything in the room was shaking. I was eating breakfast and I was in the seventh Heaven of delight to see them and hear them.

We say that the British are very conservative, very dignified and very civilised. Thirty or forty people were eating breakfast that morning, and the way these gentlemen were laughing, I said, “Oh, they are not keeping British tradition.” I was so happy.

At times Kaivalya would bend forward and say something, and then they would all throw their arms up and roar with laughter. We did not want to hear what they were talking about; we only wanted to hear their roaring laughter.

— 26 December 1997 Guatemala City