By GuruGovinda Kripa Das
1996 AD
23.4383° N, 88.3929° E
03:50 AM
The arena was something of a narrow open sky corridor, sidewalled with neatly flattened bamboo, woven into walls around 7ft high to create a sense of privacy. Handpumps made of hard iron, painted pale green and having brown rusty patches lay planted in a row along the length of the 10ft wide bathing arena.
One entrance was available at the end facing our ashram, a one storied building made of fine red Bengal bricks, not requiring a cement layering over it. At the other end lay another entrance where an electric water pump was housed for different utilities. Yellow incandescent light bulbs hung randomly along the bamboo walls and some from tree branches, trying to dispel the darkness of the heavily fogged early morning at 4AM. The long dark shadows danced as the bulbs were bobbed in the wind and from far in the dark came ghostly whistling sounds as the wind blew against the banana trees lining the football field and the tall grasses beyond them. We rubbed our sleepy eyes grabbing the blankets tighter, it was time to get ready for MangalArati!
We just woke up to the calls of our then ashram teacher Mathuresh prabhu only to see the Senior boys already up, running around with wet gamchas and steam visibly rising from their warm bodies trying to battle the chilly winds! And that made us dive deeper into the warm woolen blankets, while our minds ran the most complex programs trying to figure out an excuse that hasnt yet been used. In the background of our sleepy brains, ran another heavily patched program calculating to check whose chance it was today, to relish the Mangal Sweets from Srila Prabhupads Pushpa Samadhi. It was arranged in a kind of rotation, giving each group of boys their long awaited chance.
Although the ground water is usually warmer than surface water, it seemed far colder than anything we knew! Some, who posessed great determination, went ahead and tried the handpumps and their buckets. Others ran to the electric pump for a heavy and continuous flow, fearing the chilling breezes during the intervals between each bucket at the handpumps. Some others experimented diving into the nearby pond knowing that water cools slower than land and has remained warm from the previous days heat.
Only a person who has stayed in Mayapur during the winter might be able to gauge the intensity of this situation. So, among one such cold days, a word fell into my anxious ears, that soap in ones underarms at night can help you get a fever. I didn’t dare to inquire further details fearing that someone might get me into trouble if the experiment went as planned. Out of fear of having to face another wrathful ‘Ice bucket challenge’ the next morning, I slipped in a brand new soap as I went to sleep that night. I suddenly woke up to the umpteenth call of ‘Mashai’. Thats what we call our ashram teacher. I pulled my black and rich green chequered blanket over my face, to secretly check for fever only to find everything normal and the soap at my feet, which had gotten pushed during my sleep! Disappointed about the experiment I finally jumped out of bed and joined the others for the challenge!!!
Later we all walk back to the ashram from the temple as usual, after the morning activities, with a bright glowing face and a big Jagannath smile, filled with the joy of chanting the Holyname.
Years later, still thinking about the soap experiment, I smiled to myself and realized that the soap should be applied with water and not just slipped dry in the armpits. And Im not sure about that too cos I haven’t tried this method yet. If you are reading this, please let me know the outcome of this experiment once you are done.
So thats the story of our ICE Bucket challenge and a few of the courageous survivors who had taken up this challenge along with me are visible in this old snap!