1. Normal Day in Puttaparthi, India.... Wake up happy. Birds singing in the light rain. Light my incense sticks. Honor the deities. Take a shower. Feed the cats who live on the property. Have delicious coffee feeling so at one with God. Phone rings. Person threatens to attempt suicide because he is penniless. Phone rings. Carpenter cannot pick up bookcases to be repaired because workers have not come. Phone rings: Person wants to know why electricity bills are so high. Pigs being herded across the front of the house by a pig herder on a bicycle. Maid arrives and reports that her daughters went to the ashram to buy five rupee popsicles that now cost 25 rupees. "God knows what bad people do, Ma," she says. Shouting man stands outside my compound wall wanting to sell me honey. He hurls curses when I refuse. Phone rings. A fake guru is wanted by ashram authorities for swindling people. Phone rings. Don't repeat this information to anyone. Couple in nearby house fighting and lady screaming so loudly cats run into the garden and hide. Maid says it is his first wife. His second wife does not shout. Bicycle rickshaw man arrives to pick up two huge bookcases. Maid and I have to load the bookcases onto the carrier bed because he cannot let go of the rickshaw. At 10 I call about the painter's absence. I learn he has taken an unannounced trip to Bangalore. Water proofing workers are also missing. I leave the house and walk to the ashram to have some peace. There is a "public talk" going on in Poornachandra Hall. I decide to listen to the speakers. I cannot enter because a security guard says I need an invitation. I look into the hall. It is basically EMPTY. I buy a cup of coffee and sit under the huge tree next to Radio Sai offices. The tiny ledge of wall I perch on is completely empty except for me. A very hefty lady comes up right next to me, heaves herself down and asks me to move because she is too crowded. I get up to leave the ashram. I pass the statue of Buddha and imagine what torture he had to go through all those six years in the silence.before he reached enlightenment. I've been here 23 years and cannot master silence. On the way home I go to the travel agent and ask him to book a flight for me to a peaceful place. He looks bewildered. At home my cellphone has a text message. Evybdy steelig and cheet me. Hlp. Phone rings. I do not answer.