So from Panipat, they began camping out in the open under the shelter of trees during the night, or under the bus. While journeying to Kashmir, they had slept in hotels, dak bungalows, or dharamshalas; but from the 15th, Baba wished to spend the night under the stars, in forests, or by the side of a river. They would drive all day, stopping only for their morning meals, and continue driving late into the night, sleeping outside, sometimes even in the monsoon rain.
The following day at 10:45 A.M., eight miles past Agra, Baba gestured to stop at a wayside inn. Their meal was cooked by Baba, with Aga Ali and Ali Akbar assisting him. After lunch, the journey continued. It had rained the entire time they had stopped.
Between Dholpur and Gwalior, mistaking Padri to be a military officer from the attire he was wearing, some soldiers smartly saluted him as he drove by. When the same thing happened in Guna, Padri burst out laughing, knowing that they had no idea what his condition really was: driving the bus day and night single-handedly, and silently enduring Baba's teasing, taunts and torments on top of it all!
In Gwalior, Padri mailed the exposed rolls of film to a photographer in Ahmednagar for processing, but the rolls were lost in the mail. Hence, no photographs of this journey were to survive. The Master's seclusion on Harvan Hill, near where Jesus is buried, was therefore more pronounced than any of the mandali could imagine at the time.
On their return journey from Kashmir, Baba continued cooking the meals himself. But this was not prasad to the mandali; it was a painful taunting.
They had to bear Baba's repeated censuring, "It's all right. You all take rest; all of you are so tired. I will cook for you; don't worry, since you are exhausted."
These sarcastic remarks would pierce their hearts, but they could do nothing to alleviate the situation. Not only would Baba not allow them to help cook, he would tease them about it, making them all the more irritated. His sharp words and critical mood were wounding them, and they had to bear the indignation and swallow their hurt feelings.
On Sunday, 18 August 1929, their bedrolls, which were tied on top of the bus, got drenched in the rain. That evening they had to sleep without them while exposed to the damp weather. It was a miserable night.