After a lifetime of generally being a busy bee, it is immensely gratifying to spend time with Amma, and learning to savour stillness. She’s 95, so by default life slows down at that age, and gets pared to essentials. Bath, meals, temple, walk. That’s it, more or less.

As followers of this column may know, she lives in a senior citizens’ home outside Bombay, in a cottage in the midst of a fruit orchard, that primarily caters to the Saraswat community. I visit her often—the grass is definitely greener there.