Soon after her recovery, Mansari's uncle Sorabji Desai went to Baba. Returning to Navsari he told the family, "Baba sends his love and blessings to you all." Turning to Mansari he remarked, "Baba seems to have developed a skin disease exactly like yours."
Mansari grew frantic with worry, believing Baba had taken on her affliction and was suffering on her behalf. Her disease returned. When she next met Baba in Bombay, she prayed to him not to take on her suffering again.
Baba replied, "Let it be as it is. Neither you nor I will have to suffer. This was all my game to draw you to me. It was I who created this 'incurable' disease, and now that you are mine, you will never suffer from it again."
As Baba had promised, the disease left Mansari forever.
Mansari was not the only new addition to the women mandali. On 28 June, four Westerners arrived in Bombay on the Conte Verde and were then driven to Ahmednagar by Elizabeth and Norina to join Baba's burgeoning ashram.1 They were Nadine Tolstoy from America, and Hedi Mertens, Helen Dahm and Irene Billo from Switzerland. Irene contracted jaundice shortly after she arrived, so by Baba's orders, Rano began nursing her. Baba supervised her treatment and she gradually recovered.
One person who did not recover from his malady was a mental patient staying at the Mad Ashram in Meherabad. He died on 6 July 1938 and was buried the next day. Baba came to Meherabad on the 7th and severely scolded Ghani, whom he blamed for being negligent in his care of this person.
On the 9th, most of the women (except for Mehera, Naja and Khorshed) came to Meherabad to attend a fair and watch a procession held by the Arangaon villagers. While Baba was there, two British army officers from the Small Arms School came. They had an interview with Baba at Meherabad the following day and Kitty spoke with them.
Chanji arrived at Meherabad for the 13th anniversary of Baba's silence on Sunday, 10 July 1938. Dr. Alu Khambatta and Dr. Paramanand (a fellow female doctor helping Alu run her Bombay clinic) accompanied Chanji.
Alu wished to go to Ireland for a medical course, and Baba told her, "Go fearlessly. Leave everything to me. I will see to all, here and there. Write me a letter every 21 days."
Footnotes
- 1.Two other women from Switzerland, Alice Sheitlin and Frieda Oberholzer, had been invited to India by Baba but were unable to come. (The details of their personal contact with Baba in Europe are not known.)