You are taking daily almost exactly the same thing as Anglo-Indians take in their clubs i.e. a peg. Only brandy and soda are not there – but the water is.Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 2. 1936
Letter ID: 1809
Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar
December 23, 1936
Why, that is almost exactly what we have advised J to do from the very start, only peroxide was not given.
You are taking daily almost exactly the same thing as Anglo-Indians take in their clubs i.e. a peg. Only brandy and soda are not there – but the water is.
Amidst the wonderful silence of the trees, the blue vast sea and sky, what a queer poem I wrote. Gracious Lord! I went there to enjoy myself and this discordant poem was the result; making me sad throughout the day. I was so sad, till suddenly I thought, the poem may be the cause.
Maybe. You may have made an unconscious excursion to somewhere undesirable.
Have you ever heard such a story of any poet?
Why not? Poets are always queer cattle.
Did I make an excursion to an occult plane, or did the occult precipitate itself into the poem?
May be either.
Very funny, really, if this is the reason of the sadness; even if not, why such a bizarre poem should come out in a beautiful place?
Quite usual. The better things are, the more melancholy one can become. Luxury of contradiction proper to the vital nature. Funny for the intelligence, quite natural according to vital logic.
... Guru, I am not at all satisfied with my poems. I’ll have to stop writing.
Are you ever satisfied? That’s not a reason for stopping.
Shall I give up sonnet writing?
No.
Good God, I didn’t ask you about that word [18.12.36] at all, for I read it the very next day. But that is no reason why you shouldn’t recognise your own writing, Sir!
A marker was on that page, so I thought you were returning1 my writing by imposing on me the impossible task of reading it after many days!
1 Doubtful reading.