Ghani and Merwan had been in the same classes together in high school and college. Since Merwan had quit college after his contact with Hazrat Babajan, Ghani had lost track of his friend for over seven years. In the meantime, Ghani had finished college and become a homeopathic doctor.1 He had married and moved to Bombay where he opened a homeopathic dispensary on Sandhurst Road. He was also appointed an honorary magistrate — a munsiff — and functioned as a subordinate judge in a small claims court in Bombay. Hence he was addressed officially as Dr. Abdul Ghani Munsiff.
One day during 1920, Baba was at Munshiji's house with many of Munshiji's Muslim friends who had gathered to meet him. Ghani, who knew Munshiji well, happened to drop by on a casual visit. Seeing his boyhood friend after so many years, Ghani slapped Merwan on the back and exclaimed, "Merwan, you are here?! I thought you might have been dead all these past years. Whatever happened to you anyway, old friend?"
Hearing this, Baba only smiled. However, the Muslims present did not like Ghani's familiar way of addressing their guru. Ghani glanced at those in the room and sensed their reproach. "Merwan is my old, old friend," he explained. "We were on the same teams together when we played as boys. We were classmates at St. Vincent's and Deccan College. We lived in the same neighborhood." But Ghani's remarks fell on deaf ears and the devotee's eyes held scorn.
Munshiji quoted the adage, "A friend of the past is an awkward customer — alas!" (meaning that an old friend is a bad client in business.)
Ghani was taken aback, thinking: "What did I do wrong? Is there something disrespectful in what I said? Why do these fellows misunderstand my intention? And why are they paying so much respect to Merwan?"
Baba, however, intervened and broke the tension in the room. He had his old friend sit near him and talked affectionately with him, reminiscing about their boyhoods together.
Baba ended by advising, "Ghani, you should visit me whenever you come to Poona. I will always be happy to see you when you come back here."
Footnotes
- 1.After graduating from Deccan College, Ghani joined the Medical College of Poona, but he left without graduating and instead studied homeopathy for three years at a college in Calcutta, obtaining the degree of L.H.M.S.