They reached Nanking the next morning at seven o'clock. Pendu and Gustadji were waiting on the platform to receive Baba. All went to stay at Herbert's house two miles from the station. As ordered, Pendu, Gustadji and Jalbhai had been waiting in China for three months, expecting Baba's call to join him in America. Prior to Baba's arrival in China, Vishnu and Raosaheb had been sent back to Nasik.
After refreshments, Herbert took Baba to see the Great Wall in Nanking. A lake was nearby and Baba walked along it a long distance. Nanking was a pleasant city and reminded Baba and the mandali of Poona. Baba was driven up the Purple Mountain in the afternoon to see the memorial to the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen.1 Though the roads were rough, Baba liked the surroundings.
In the evening the group sat around Baba in his room and listened to music. Thereafter, Baba dictated cables for Chanji to send to America, England and India about his change of plans.
Many Chinese students from the National Central University, where Herbert taught, and older men and women came to meet Baba in Nanking. At first, when showing Baba the sights, Herbert had taken Baba to more quiet areas of the city.
But Baba said, "No, take me to where the crowds are."
So in Nanking, too, Baba wandered about the dirty, downtrodden lanes of the poorer sections, where the Chinese peasants gazed at him in wonderment.
Herbert's teaching assignment was coming to an end. Wishing to serve Baba, he said, "If you want me to visit Dairen [Talien], Manchuria, Siberia, Moscow and Warsaw on my way to London, I will."
Baba replied, "All right. Then proceed to Marseilles via Manchuria and Russia, and meet me there on July 20."2
On Sunday, 26 June 1932, Baba saw a film at the National Cinema, drove through the swarming lanes of the city again and visited a temple of Confucius. Baba was to leave that day and Herbert presented him with a lacquered statue of Mile Fo , which is the name used by the Chinese for the "Coming Buddha."
After staying for three days in Nanking, Baba entrained for Shanghai at 11:00 P.M. They arrived at eight in the morning and left at 4:00 P.M. for Bombay on the SS Kaiser-i-Hind on the 28th. Herbert Davy left for Dairen (China's northernmost seaport) six days later on his way to Russia.
Baba landed in Hong Kong at 7:00 A.M. on Friday, 1 July 1932 and was met by a Parsi named Rustom E. Desai. Baba and the mandali went to his house, where Desai and his wife had prepared Indian dishes.
Footnotes
- 1.Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925) was born near Canton and educated in medicine in Hong Kong. After some years of being a doctor, he plotted to overthrow the Ch'ing dynasty of China and establish a republic. After revolution erupted in China, he was elected in 1911 as the provisional president of the Chinese republic.
- 2.Baba went to the French Consulate and obtained a visa on 25 June 1933 to visit France.