A Mother’s Blessing, a Narrow Escape, and Darwin’s Day – My Salutation to Smt. Gauramma Devendrappa Gurugunti, on her passing.

Early morning on 10 February, 2026 – around 7 AM – I received a call from Sangamnath, my close friend for nearly fifty years, followed by a brief call from Dr Sumana, the wife of our dearest friend Dr Umeshchandra, that her mother in law - mother of our close friend Dr Umeshchandra Gurugunti, is an extended family to our family, Smt. Gouramma Devendrappa Guruganti, passed away peacefully in her sleep, aged nearly 90, at their residence in Kalaburagi at around 4.30 AM.

While paying my profound respect and homage to the noble departed soul - after returning back to Mumbai after travelling two days (10th and 11th Feb) and seeking her blessings and joining our friend Dr Umesh and family in the last rites to the holy departed soul of Smt Gauramma, at Kalaburagi - I feel blessed to write this tribute to share our experience of the divine blessings that we received from Smt Gauramma - mother to us all - in her passing, which saved us during our journey.

That shocking telephonic news of the passing of Dr Umesh’s mother made me momentarily indecisive in my thoughts as to how my wife and I can reach Kalaburagi in time to seek her last blessings and pay our last respect. Fortunately, Sangamnath planned the schedule and had decided that our two families should travel together from Pune to Kalaburagi. I had to reach Pune from Mumbai as early as we could for the onward journey from Pune. Sangamnath was in Mahabaleshwar, and he had to reach Pune, which he hoped he would by 10AM.

Fortunately, I could manage a taxi to travel to Pune, and both my wife and I boarded the taxi with absolutely no preparation whatsoever, to travel to Pune with the aim to reach at the earliest. We left Mumbai at 7.15 AM, hoping to reach Pune as early as possible, knowing well what the peak time traffic jam and travel will be in Pune. We managed to reach Sangamnath’s house only by 10.55 AM, due to heavy traffic congestion in Pune city. And our two families together departed for Kalaburagi in Sangamnath’s car at 11.05 AM. What divine intervention unfolded on that journey from Pune to Kalaburagi is something I feel I must share, to express that not everything that happens can be explained in scientific terms, perhaps each time, every time.

When we left Pune at 11:10 AM on 10 February, Google Map showed an arrival time at Kalaburagi as 7:30 PM. The distance was over 410 kilometres and we were also to pass through Pune city and its traffic congestion. The cremation, we were informed by Arun Shetkar, our friend, who was managing the arrangements, had to take place before sunset — before 6 PM — as per the guidance of the priests.

The arithmetic was unforgiving. Nearly two hours were spent negotiating Pune’s traffic for barely 60 kilometres. At 1.10 PM, we still had about 350 kilometres to cover in less than five hours. It appeared impossible.

Yet Sangamnath, who once headed the Tata Motors plant at Pimpri from where the very Tata Hexa we were travelling in had rolled out, believed in his machine. More importantly, we believed in our purpose — to see our mother-like Gouramma one last time and seek her blessings before her final journey. Both our wives, despite health constraints mandating them to take breakfast, resolved that we must make every effort to reach Kalaburagi in time to seek the blessings and last Darshan of Umesh’s mother.

Arun kept cautioning us to drive safely. He even offered to arrange a video darshan if we could not make it in time — which, rationally speaking, seemed the only likely option possible. But something remarkable happened. As we advanced on the highway, the expected time of arrival that Google started showing kept shrinking, gradually. Sangamnath had thrown caution to the winds while he drew the Tata Hexa at speed, we would never ever imagine. What seemed impossible began to appear faintly possible with the man and machine collaborating to make this possible. Sangamnath had only one instruction for me: “Tell Arun to wait for us till the last second before sunset.” The distance kept shrinking and so did the expected time to reach the spot of funeral, before the sun set.

Then came the moment that would have changed everything for something terrible, but due to divine intervention - Smt Guaramma’s blessings – it did not.

Just about 15 kilometres short of Kalaburagi and the site of funeral, at nearly 90 kmph speed at which Sangamnath was driving the car, the rear wheel briefly slipped off the tarred edge of the single road on the sharp turning, onto loose, slippery ground near a trench nearly four metres deep on both sides of the road. For a fraction of a second, disaster seemed certain and inevitable. A fall into the trench or a collision with an oncoming vehicle on that narrow two-way road would have been catastrophic.

What followed was extraordinary presence of mind, perhaps Gauramma’s blessed mind at that moment. With remarkable control, Sangamnath steered and braked in a way that the vehicle spun almost 360 degrees and came to rest — without toppling, without collision, without a scratch, and with no vehicle approaching from the opposite side at that exact moment.

We were inches away from a certain tragedy, an accident, which was averted, with not just the man machine collaboration but definitely with divine intent, the blessings of our motherlike figure, Gauramma. We were safe!

In that instant, my so-called rational thinking dissolved. As a science communicator with four plus decades of experience, I have always stood firmly by reason, probability, and evidence. I do not consider myself a spiritual person in the conventional sense. And yet, sitting there in that halted car, heart pounding, one thought overwhelmed us all: We have been spared, by divine intervention.

Spared so that we may reach in time to seek Mother Gauramma’s blessings, one last time

Spared so that we may see our departed mother like figures face.

We saw our mother Gouramma one last time. We bowed. We sought her blessings and finally all of us together completed the final rites of her cremation just in time, before the scheduled sun set.

Was it Sangamnath’s skill that helped us reach safely and in time? Certainly. Was it mechanical reliability? Undoubtedly. Was it coincidence? Perhaps.

In that spinning moment of split-second accident which had positioned us between trench and survival, notwithstanding my four decades of professional experience as a science communicator, I could not help but feel that perhaps God does play dice – and that day, the throw was mercifully blessed by Guaramma.

In the deepest chamber of my heart, which I now believe, I feel it was something beyond all the skills and expertise of Sangmanth’s driving skill or the robustness of the Tata Hexa we were travelling in, it was purely the grace of our motherlike figure, Gauramma and her divine blessings which saved us all from a certain accident and a disastrous consequence which would have followed that helped us to navigate such long distance, without any break to reach the site safe and sound to seek her blessings, one last time.

After paying our last respect we stayed back in Arun’s place and left Kalaburagi to travel back to our respective destinies after reminiscing the motherly love and affection of Gauramma in Dr Umesh’s house with all the family members, her three children, Dr Umesh and his two elder sisters, her daughter and son in law, her grandchildren, her great grandchild.

Sangamnath and I left Kalaburagi next day morning – 11 February – and travelled back to Pune and reached Pune safely at 6.40 PM. After a brief wash and change at his home and hurried dinner, which Mrs Rajalaxmi, Digge had prepared for us, my wife and I took a taxi back home to Mumbai and reached our place at midnight.

This morning 12 February, as I recollected all those events which had passed my mind the previous days, and was thinking what written homage I must pay to the noble departed soul of our mother-like figure, Gauramma, thoughts that came my mind have led to this write up.

As has always been a habit for me to express my thoughts in writing, I also realised that today, 12 February, is the birth anniversary of Charles Darwin — the great naturalist who transformed our understanding of life through the power of natural selection. A thinker who replaced supernatural explanations with scientific reasoning.

To honour the passing of Smt Gauramma Devendrappa Gurugunti, I have also written a blog post of tribute to Darwin on his birth anniversary, reflecting on his legacy, whose link is given below. This post is dedicated to the noble departed Nobel soul of Gouramma.

https://khened.blogspot.com/2026/02/remembering-charles-darwin-on-his-217th.html

For even as Darwin taught us the laws of nature, life occasionally humbles us with experiences that remind us how little we truly comprehend about timing, chance, survival, and grace.

If science teaches us probability, life teaches us gratitude.

Perhaps one need not abandon reason to acknowledge wonder.

Perhaps faith and science are not adversaries but different languages through which we attempt to interpret the same vast mystery.

On Darwin’s birth anniversary, I bow to science.

And in the memory of Gouramma — who loved us all like her own children — we bow to her grace and blessings.

Om Shanti.