Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 2. 1937
Letter ID: 2003
Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar
July 20, 1937
Why so furious about injective instruments, Sir? They are supposed to be very effective.
That doesn’t make an increase of hospitals, illnesses and injections the ideal of a millennium.
But why the deuce are those instruments to be replaced by fountain-pens? Want doctors to be poets or clerks? Or is it a hint to me to write more than prescribe?
I was simply adopting the saying of Isaiah the prophet, “the swords will be turned into ploughshares”, but the doctor’s instrument is not big enough for a ploughshare, so I substituted fountain-pens.
A swelling – size of a cherry – has appeared inside my nose... The tip is damn painful. Knifing is not advisable. I hope it won’t leave me with a nose like that of Cyrano de-quoi?1
Let us hope not. That kind of nose wouldn’t suit either your face or your poetry.
1 Cyrano de Bergerac: A character, famed for his enormous nose, in the play of the same name by Edmond Rostand.