The Devotion of Life — Page 525
525 what I had told them. I may have forgotten to relate that once, when I was in the hospital, a group of six or seven women visited me. At first, they asked me irrelevant questions and then they informed me that a decision had been made for my release and that I would soon return to my homeland. Having left a bitter taste in the mouth of every citizen, the Russian winter season was slowly coming to an end. Cold weather in Russia is a severe punishment. Mothers reprimand their children by warning them that if they are disobedient they will not have winter clothes to wear. Very few people are seen on the roads. The cinemas and theatres also look abandoned. It seems as if the whole country suddenly has become old or sick. However, as soon as a few leaves appear on the trees in either late February or in early March, people again start to come out of their homes and when the month of May arrives it becomes as we say in our country, ‘The month of May has arrived Perspiration has started running all over ’ Thus, in Russia also, May is filled with a festive air. The streets and bazaar are teeming with people and life returns. During these days I was also enjoying life. All the questioning, etcetera was over. The prison employees also had no interest in me. The hardship I endured while being guarded there had vanished. I knew that all of this was a prelude to the forthcoming spring. My physical condition was not good. The relaxing time I had in the hospital had ended when I