Once Shireen confronted her brother-in-law, "Khoda, you always say you can't afford this, you can't afford that! How is it that you can afford to come to India every year?"
Khodadad Kaka smiled and replied, "I have to see Merog, don't I? I am his uncle, am I not?"
The boy's countenance was unusually charming. His sweet smile spread gladness in the hearts of all who met him. His face shone with delight. The child was so darling that even casual acquaintances were drawn to him. The boy's golden hair was so appealing that for five years Shireen did not allow it to be cut. The golden-brown locks fell to his small shoulders and strangers would often mistake him for a European child.
Although the boy was young, his mother had already started making grand plans for him. "When Merog grows up," Shireen would often tell her relatives, "I shall send him to England for his education. He will become a noted doctor or a great scientist."
Merwan was a healthy child, except for one affliction: he had a sensitive stomach and weak bowels. He was not a big eater; his intake was minimal. Perhaps because of his stomach, he preferred less spicy food. His mother thought he ate the wrong things and would spank him for it. Seeing her spanking the boy one day, Shireen's sister Dowla Masi stopped her, saying, "Shireen, don't spank Merog. I cannot bear to see him crying." Sheriar never laid a hand on his son; he always knew that Merwan was the one God had promised him.
As a boy, Merwan followed the normal course of life. When he was about five years old, he was admitted to the primary section of the Gujarati-medium Pudumjee School, where he learned the Gujarati ABCs and basic numbers.1 He studied at this school for three years. Merwan did not like arithmetic and would complain about it to Bobo. Although Merwan was extremely intelligent, studying mathematics became a bane to him.
One day at the Pudumjee School during an arithmetic lesson being taught by Miss Ratanbai, Merwan had an overwhelming experience which he later described: "I saw a great glitter of circles with tiny points in them as if suns, moons and stars were being projected from those points."
His teacher noticed that Merwan suddenly looked dazed or dizzy and as she watched, he lost consciousness and fell out of his chair.
Footnotes
- 1.Merwan was right-handed.