ChaptersChapter 15Page 2,200

Chapter 15: Seclusion

1941Page 2,200 of 5,444
On hearing their repeated entreaties, Baba at last gave in and allowed Nilu and Eruch to buy one new tube and one new tire, which were fitted to the bus. While in Lahore, Baba took the women to see Shalimar Garden, Anarkali Bazaar and other sites in the city.
On the morning of Wednesday, 5 March 1941, they left Lahore for Montgomery, 102 miles away. After only 40 miles, the bus broke down again and Baba was quite peeved. He wanted to contact a high mast in Pakpattan, and so ordered Nilu into the front seat of Elizabeth's car with him and drove off. (Four of the women were in the back seat, curtained off.) Eruch was left to manage alone and told to meet them in Montgomery. Baba's car arrived at eleven o'clock. After leaving the women at the P.W.D. bungalow, Baba, Nilu and Elizabeth drove to contact the mast 30 miles away in Pakpattan, near the tomb of the Perfect Master Baba Farid Shakkar Ganj. The unnamed mast had a tall, stout physique.
Later in the evening, Baba took three of the Western women and contacted a young mastani of eighteen in a squalid shack where she was said to have been living for the past twelve years. The girl had been God-intoxicated since age six.
At night, again Nilu and Eruch beseeched Baba to purchase four new tires and tubes. Again, Baba denied their request.
On the morning of the 6th, they left Montgomery for Multan, 137 miles away. Baba ordered Eruch to drive faster — at least 45 miles per hour. Nilu listened in silent trepidation. They had barely gone 40 miles when the bus suffered yet another puncture which Eruch and Nilu tried to mend. Baba was waiting ahead in the Buick, and when the bus caught up with him, he took Nilu in the car to contact masts in Multan, which he seemed anxious to reach. Eruch was left alone for the second time to mend the tire by himself.
Baba's car reached Multan at 11, due to Baba constantly urging Elizabeth, "Drive faster!"
Seventy m.p.h. may not seem much on modern highways, but it is a breakneck speed on the rough, often unpaved roads of India at the time, where at any moment a stray animal or villager might wander across.
of 5,444