A victoria (horse-drawn carriage) was hired in Lahore to take Baba and some of the women to the movies. The driver did not know who Baba was, but seeing that he was silent, the driver would talk with them through hand signs. Baba, in turn, would reply with hand gestures. Although they told the man to speak, he would not. Baba understood his signs and he understood Baba's. While gesturing, the driver's whole body would shake and wiggle, and Baba greatly enjoyed "talking" with him.
Baba took all the women to a film on 29 July 1943 in a bus arranged by Homi Desai.
Arrangements for acquiring passports and visas for Baba's trip to Iran were made in Lahore, but it was not easy to get the work done quickly. Chanji was sent to Bombay for this purpose, but he, too, could not succeed as travel had practically come to a standstill during the war. Chanji returned to Lahore with the disappointing news on 30 July.
Chanji, of course, would have succeeded had Baba wished, but Baba had other plans in mind. A meeting was held in Lahore on Sunday, 1 August 1943 to review the situation. Adi Sr., Jal Kerawalla and Ghani attended. The other men mandali were also present, and certain decisions were made and intimated to his lovers by a circular, a portion of which follows:
“”Due to extraneous factors intervening, and the abnormalities of times and circumstances, the passport formalities will require a good deal of time (not less than three months) to be gone through by the authorities concerned in India and Iran.
Hence, the August program of a visit to Iran does not seem likely to be achieved as originally intended. Consequently, the November plan also automatically undergoes re-modification.
Taking all the factors (internal and extraneous) into consideration, I have therefore arranged:
One: the visit to Mashhad [Iran], to take place before the end of December 1943, at the latest;
Two: the program of a month's stay with me, and near me, to begin from the 15th of January 1944, to the 15th of February — the date of my birth [according to the Zoroastrian calendar].
Unaware as you are of my reasons and purposes for the ever-repeated postponements in the breaking of my silence, and for my apparently giving vague promises (which are likely to create doubts in the weak ones, but add strength of test in the strong ones), you should be aware of my methods of working, as that I always allow things to shape themselves out in the natural course, and I seldom put my mind into bringing about merely mundane results.
