Ardeshir N. Hansotia, nicknamed Slamson, was born in 1899, a younger brother of Gustadji Hansotia, one of Meher Baba's earliest disciples. Their father was Nusserwanji and their mother Bhikaiji, and Homi and Sohrab Hansotia were also their brothers. Like Gustadji, Slamson had contact with Sai Baba and Upasni Maharaj, and around 1918 he became one of the close associates of the young Merwan Seth in Poona.
By 1919 Slamson, Gustadji and Nervous were working in and managing the toddy shop in Kasba Peth, Poona, with Merwan overseeing their work. When Baba set up Manzil-e-Meem in Bombay in 1922, the carpentry work of partitioning the bungalow into rooms was done under Slamson's supervision, and he later served as manager of a flour mill at Parel that Baba had his men run. By 1923 he was one of five residents with official nicknames: Asthma, Baidul, Nervous, Slamson and Barsoap.
In 1923 Slamson was among the fourteen men who stayed with Baba at Arangaon, the site that became Meherabad, and he shared the journeys of that year. He was put in charge of travel arrangements, was the only one to support Gustadji's proposal of a walking expedition from Ahmedabad, arranged the group's stay in a Parsi dharamshala there, joined Baba's walk from Bombay towards Sakori in October, staying behind with him at Bableshwar when the others went on to Sakori, and was one of eleven men chosen to accompany Baba on a planned journey to Persia, travelling with him through Sind to Karachi that November.
Slamson lived with the mandali for some years. He stayed at Meherabad again during 1928 before returning to his home in Indore in January 1929, and when Baba's party reached Indore that July he happened to cross the road and guided them to a place to stay. In 1943 and 1944 he lived with Baba again, at Meherabad and at Pimpalgaon, together with Gustadji.
From Indore he helped in Baba's work with masts. During the Manonash period, in December 1951 and January 1952, he brought masts to Ahmednagar, among them the mast-saint Vishandas Maharaj, who was kept at Meherazad. After Gustadji's death, Baba gave Slamson some of Gustadji's belongings at Meherazad on 30 November 1957, and at the 1958 Meherabad Sahavas Baba introduced Homi and Slamson, the late Gustadji's brothers, saying, "None can introduce those at the sahavas; only I know them!"
