Minoo Pohowala came on the 26th from Bijapur to meet Baba, for the first time in three years. Abdulla Jaffer and his family came the next day, bringing Ramjoo's son Dadu.
In the interim, Baba had been to Bombay on 17 August 1933 for the day, and went again on Monday, 4 September to book his boat passage for the upcoming trip to the West. Baba saw Vajifdar, a former disciple from the Manzil-e-Meem days and an all-India cricketer.1 He also met Beheram, Perin and Memo, who were living in Bombay at the time.
That evening, Baba wished to take Memo and Perin out, so they went to a film, The White Sister , at the Apollo Theater. The film, a romantic love story, had been highly recommended, but unfortunately they could not hear a word of the dialogue and left the film much before the end.
On 6 September, Baba went to Alamai Katrak's home where he played carrom with her children for a while before leaving for Nasik at 3:15 that afternoon.
During September 1933, the booklet Questions and Answers was being translated from English into different languages: into Marathi by Kalemama, K. K. Manekar and Kelkar of Dhulia; into Gujarati by Soma Desai (with Chanji's help); and into Persian by Raosaheb, who daily read out his version to Baba. While letters and cables were being sent to the West about his upcoming visit, Baba was overseeing the mandali's future affairs and assigning duties to each one.
Kaka was serving as Baba's orderly at this time, but when he went back to Bombay on 13 September, Pendu was given the duty. Baba's photograph was taken that day especially for Ramjoo's new book, Shree Meher Baba: His Philosophy & Teachings , and also to present to his Western devotees, as they often requested his picture. Baba went over the manuscript of the book and made some corrections.
At 3:00 P.M. of the 14th, Baba went to Sayyed Saheb's house for tea and a music program that lasted until six. Nusserwan Satha arrived that day from Ahmednagar, and the Aiyangar family of Madras came the following day for Baba's darshan.
The mandali's plans were changed on Friday, 15 September 1933, when Baba sent Pendu to Meherabad with instructions to construct certain buildings there. Sailor, Sidhu, Bala Supekar, and Kalingad were sent along with him. Bala was the brother of Arjun Supekar (one of the Kasba Peth mandali who had died in 1926). Kalingad originally came from Persia and had been a Meher Ashram student.
Footnotes
- 1.Although there is no record of Vajifdar ever seeing Meher Baba again after 1933, Pendu recalled that Vajifdar came to see Baba once in the 1950s in Bombay. Vajifdar died in 1961.