how poor his sight was

[Guest guest]

Day by Day with Bhagavan________11-12-45About 6-30 p.m. a young man, Mr. Ramachandra Reddi ofBegampet, Hyderabad (Deccan), who came here a few monthsback and stayed a day or two and took some pictures of Bhagavanwith his cine camera, told Bhagavan that he had a film of about100 feet ready and, if permitted, he would project it beforeBhagavan. Bhagavan had no objection and so he made twopersons hold a white sheet at the western end of the hall and onthat screen projected the pictures he had taken — Bhagavancoming from the hall, meeting Narayana Iyer's son Ramanathan,holding their youngest child, touching with his stick and speakingto him, etc., Bhagavan coming from the cow-shed, climbing thehill and then returning from there, being followed by Mrs.Taleyarkhan and Miss Soona Dorabji and some other scenes.We all appreciated the pictures. But Bhagavan could not see themclearly. It was a revelation to us how poor his sight was. Then forhis benefit the screen was held near the southern window oppositeBhagavan's sofa and the pictures were projected again, but hecould not see them clearly even then.Bhagavan said in this connection that once Mr. GrantDuff or someone else wrote to the Asramam that they sawsome film of Bhagavan in Hollywood. Bhagavan said, "Weknew nothing about it. But apparently someone had come andsnapped me when I was moving on the hill."Mr. K. K. Nambiar also took about 100 feet of film some6 months back. But it seems to have been a failure. OurVenkatoo said in the hall that some years ago Jayadevlal'sfriend took some pictures with a cine camera, but as they hadheard nothing more of them, they too must have been a failure.