Sheela Advani (Princeton) is a charming and active personality, whom everyone affectionately addresses as Naani.
Eighty-seven years old Sheela Advani, the so-called Naani of Princeton is a philosopher, philanthropist, poet, linguist and an extremely nice and graceful person. Sheela Ji, a businesswoman, and a graduate in arts, born on 13th January 1937, chose compatible Princeton to live, in the year 2015. She is highly disciplined and lives in 1B 182 at Princeton, with a caretaker, as a tenant. Her guardian, the owner of her flat, fulfils Sheela ji’s needs as and when she requires. When Naani encounters a trivial issue, laughter club members readily come forward to help her, as with online deliveries, cell phone remittances etc. She never opted to buy a house though she could very well afford to!
Sheela ji’s day starts at 3:30 am with meditation for a couple of hours and she undertakes cycling exercises. Every morning she walks about 4 km and writes poems in Hindi in her free time. Some of her poems were printed and published sometimes back. She could speak Hindi, English, Sindhi, Urdu, Gujarati and read Punjabi and Bengali scripts and learnt German in her youth.
She would be found chatting with her friends in the evenings and had never missed the Hanuman Chalisa chanting by elite laughter club members and friends, which takes place on all Tuesdays and Saturday evenings in Central Park at Princeton. At 7 pm she would go back home for evening prayers and at 9 pm, would wind up her daily chores and proceed to a restful sleep. She lost her bachelor brother who was living with her, a couple of years back.
Sheela ji’s parents migrated from Karachi to live in India with their two children during the time of partition. She carried out the business of manufacturing rollers for conveyor belts (started by her father) till 2014.
Sheela ji had taken Diksha at the age of 22, from her guru, then-eighth President of Ram-akrishna Mission. Swami Brahmananda was the first President of Rama Krishna Mission. She had endowed her wealth to the mission, which works on the principles of selfless work with true devotion to God !
Sheela ji is like a flower that spreads fragrance in the area and makes the whole environment serene and pleasant.
May the Almighty bless her with pure love and devotion for God and give her long years to live and inspire others with her philosophical thoughts.
