The days went by quickly, and the work on the hill was nearly completed. The only thing remaining was to finish putting Mangalore tiles on some sections of the roof. The very last night, a small section over the southern room of the Water Tank was still to be tiled. Kalemama came to Pendu and said, "We've run out of tiles. The only ones left are broken." Pendu had an idea and called Sailor's son Dinshaw, who was staying at Meherabad to help by driving a pickup truck up and down the hill hauling materials. Pendu told Dinshaw to go down to lower Meherabad and direct the workers to remove tiles from the roof of the mandali's quarters to cover the Water Tank roof.
This they did, and the work was finished by 4:30 A.M. Pendu went down to lower Meherabad and handed over the keys of the new buildings to Padri, telling him to give Baba the keys when he came. Pendu had not slept for days and was exhausted. He went to his room and tried to sleep, but thoughts kept him awake as he reviewed each building, trying to remember anything left undone.
Accompanied by all the Eastern and Western women, Baba shifted everyone to Meherabad Hill, arriving promptly at 8:00 A.M. on Thursday, 25 August 1938. He took the keys from Padri and went up the hill to see the new buildings.1 Baba was so pleased that, before assigning the Western women their quarters, he came back down to congratulate Pendu. Standing on the verandah outside Pendu's room, Baba conversed with Padri. Pendu overheard Padri, got out of bed and came out. Smiling, Baba embraced and kissed him, indicating to him how immensely happy he was, how pleased with the work.
"I came again specially to see you. The Westerners are still standing outside with their luggage waiting for me, but first I had to see you."
Baba also praised Kalemama and Naoroji for their help in completing the work on time. As an expression of his appreciation, on Sunday the 28th, Baba held a celebration in their honor at 3:00 P.M. Sitting outside his Tomb, Baba garlanded the three main workers. A feast was arranged in the village, and Baba was taken there in a grand procession. The Arangaon villagers had his darshan, and Baba handed out prasad to all. Congratulating Pendu, Sarosh expressed everyone's feelings at the time, saying, "Pendu, my hat's off to you. You did it!"
Footnotes
- 1.After the second floor and tower were added to the Water Tank building it was renamed the Meher Retreat.