-06_Photographs of Early Construction 1929-1958.htm

Photographs of Early Construction

1929 -1958

Construction of the Balcony Block

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Page-68

Nos travaux de construction sous la direction exclusive de disciples ingénieurs.

Mere

Translation:

Construction work under the sole supervision of engineer-disciples.

Mother

Page-69

Balcony Block under construction

View from north-east (Rue Saint Gilles)

circa September 1929

Page-70

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Page-71

The Balcony Block

South view

2001

South view

circa October 1930

Page-72

Le nouveau batîment (côté jardin). A droite un coin de la vieille maison qui sera démolie dés que l'autre sera terminée.

Mere

Translation:

The new building (garden side). On the right, a corner of the old house which will be demolished when the other will be completed.

Mother

Page-73

The Balcony block has been built but the Old Secretariat has not yet been demolished. The Mother with disciples in front of the main gate of the Old Secretariat.

circa October 1930 View from Rue Saint Gilles

Page-74

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Page-75

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Page-76

The Mother's Evening Drives

In the other building [Old Secretariat] attached to the house of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo lived "Pavitra", a Frenchman named P.B. Saint-Hilaire, on the first floor. Chandulal, the Ashram engineer, lived in a room on the ground-floor of this building. This building, too, had a door leading to the road on the North. The Mother used this door to leave the Ashram premises for her daily evening drive lasting for about an hour and a half. It was Pavitra who drove the Mother's car. Many inmates of the Ashram used to assemble near the door at the hour of the Mother's going out to get a glimpse of her. Later the old building was pulled down and a new one constructed on the site.

Sahana Devi ¹⁸

Page-77

The Mother's Bridge

The other day you were saying that this whole structure, this whole building was rebuilt in the thirties.

It was all demolished and newly built. When I came, I was supervisor here.

It was built right from the basement?

Yes, yes. But when I reached the Ashram, it had already come up. We were almost on the upper floor. Pavitra's quarters were ready and he was living there [pointing at the Balcony block]. Mother was living there [pointing at the Meditation House] and those rooms above Dyuman's room were being built. One important thing you should know is this, that when this second storey was being built, the Mother used to go to Pavitra's room to give him meditation at 12 o'clock at night, and she used to walk on the scaffolding!

An Interview with Nagin Doshi ¹⁹

When the old Secretariat was demolished, a temporary bridge on the scaffolding was made for the Mother to walk across from the Meditation House to the Balcony block. The photos in this section show the bridge starting from the bathroom door on the first floor of the Meditation House and, after following a zig-zag course, ending on the portico of the Balcony block. The Mother walked on this bridge to go to Pavitra's room, according to Nagin Doshi. The term "Mother's bridge" has been taken from the work reports of Mrityunjoy who was in charge of the Electric Service during this period. In mid-June 1931, he fixed bulbs on the two ends of the bridge to provide light for the Mother when she walked on it.

Editor's Note

The bridge in the photograph on page 79 seems to have preceded the one in the other photographs of this section. Part of the old undemolished house is used here with railings on the side whereas the later one is almost entirely built on the scaffolding.

Page-78

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