Talk:Letter written on 14 Jan 1969
There was some editing and moving of the page earlier today, then reverting. What it was about was addressing a Timeline problem -- see Talk:Manuscripts ~ Reports Timeline Extraction, re "Amravati" -- where a possible solution to the problem lay in the dating of this letter, in which Osho refers to an upcoming event in Amravati. It seemed at the time that if the Amravati event were moved from 1967 to 1968, it would solve a potential Timeline conflict and release a bunch of new Timeline info.
Looking at the letter's image revealed that the date of the letter seems to be wrong. It looks to me more like 1968 than 1967, i edited, moved, etc but then ran into an unforeseen obstacle with the Amravati event in 1968, so i reverted. It can still happen, but i want to confirm the date with Shailendra before proceeding. -- doofus-9 00:45, 4 July 2019 (UTC)
Now we have to revive the question of the letter's date again, for a new reason, rather more compelling than the iffy Timeline questions referred to above, and that is the letterhead. This letter was an early arrival in the wiki, before letterheads were an item of study. Now ... we can know something about the date from the letterhead, and the letterhead for this letter tells us it cannot be much if anything before July 1968, since that or a little earlier or later is when he left his long-time Jabalpur abode at Yogesh Bhavan and moved to Kamala Nehru Nagar. The first known clearly dated use of this letterhead is 10 Aug 1968.
The problem has always been that the date in this letter is partly illegible; the 14 Jan is clear, the 1 of 19xx is clear, the rest is not. Even the postmarks on the envelope are unclear on the same details. So what year(s) are possible for 14 Jan with Kamala Nehru letterhead? Well, 1969, 1970 1nd 1971. Not that Osho lived there in 1971 but he did continue to use that letterhead occasionally.
And how do the Amravati talks fare in those years? Well, the 18th-20th of Jan has conflicts in both 1970 and 1971, while for 1969 there is an almost-eureka! moment. The Timeline has nothing at that time, and Osho's Itinerary for that year has an Amravati event scheduled for 16-21 Jan. Looking closely at that event, there are minor problems, a possible (likely?) error whereby it should actually be 19-21 Jan, and not precisely agreeing with Osho's 18-20, but quite possibly Osho had more up-to-date info. In any case, it's a decent enough fit to make 1969 by far the likeliest possibility here, so will go about editing.
FWIW, getting back to how the date actually looks, in Osho's handwriting and the two postmarks, 1967 and 1969 are the two leading candidates, so on this account also 1969 is a winner. -- doofus-9 08:21, 29 March 2020 (UTC)
