She was rising out of the center of the well and I admired her lavish green sari and the many green bangles adorning her arms. On her forehead was painted multicolored bright jasmines. In her hands she held an arti [worship] tray containing flowers, burning camphor, incense and oils.
I stood motionless and quiet in fascination of her until she beckoned me to hand over Merog. The goddess implored me, "Give me your son ... Give him to me."
Frightened, I held on to Merog all the more tightly and awakened from the dream. I was relieved when I saw Merog sleeping by my side.
After this dream, Shireen was further convinced of her son having an exceptional calling in life.
Shireen's father Dorabji had been so unyieldingly opposed to his daughter's marriage to Sheriar that he had even forbidden Sheriar to visit his house. (They hadn't spoken for eleven years.) But after the birth of Merwan, Dorabji had a profound change of heart. He was so attracted to his baby grandson that he went to see the infant every day.
Grandfather Dorabji would visit Sheriar and Shireen in their home — which he had never done before — just to be able to gaze at Merwan's attractive "lotus face." He bowed to his grandson's sweet splendor, and the baby responded with much affection. Gradually, over a period of several months, Dorabji began looking upon his son-in-law with love and respect.
Merwan was a very unusual child. For example, when he was eleven months old, he fell asleep in his mother's arms. Shireen put him on a blanket on the floor
while she went to the kitchen to cook. After she finished, she returned to pick up Merwan and was stunned by the sight that met her eyes. Merwan was awake, sitting up on the blanket, looking at a deadly black cobra just nearby. The snake spread its hood and every now and then stuck out its tongue, but Merwan was not afraid. Instead, the child was observing it carefully and swaying his head in rhythm with the cobra's as if he were an infant snake charmer.
Terrified, Shireen screamed for help. The cobra quickly slipped away. Shireen clasped Merwan in her arms, and she later related that he looked up at her as if to say, "Why did you interrupt my play? I was having fun." By the time the neighbors gathered, the cobra had disappeared.
