He had given instructions also to have 10,000 chapatis
distributed free to the poor on the streets. Baba blessed the chapatis, and
personally went out with Eruch, Baidul, Kaka and Babadas in rickshaws to hand
out the rotis . This work was done over a period of four or five days.
One day Baba called for sweetmeat and cut it up into tiny
pieces. He gave orders that everyone who was given a chapati that day must also
be given a piece of the sweet, emphasizing that, whether or not they actually
swallowed the sweet, they must be made to take it in their mouths. (His
order was given, perhaps, because starving people cannot easily digest rich
food.)
As mentioned, thousands of people were dying in Calcutta
due to famine. The price of foodstuffs had skyrocketed during the war, and even
the middle class had difficulty affording eatables. Besides this, in the absence
of proper hygienic measures to dispose of the dead, cholera was rampant. (One
estimate put the number of dead in Bengal during this time at three million.)
Deshmukh told Baba, "Cholera is spreading throughout
the city, and our drinking water should be boiled." Baba agreed, and
Deshmukh brought an earthen pot in which to store the boiled water. One day, as
Deshmukh was out distributing chapatis with Babadas, he felt thirsty but was
afraid to drink water away from their hotel. The next day, he solved the problem
by taking the earthenware pot with them, and making Babadas carry it on his
head. Deshmukh would go forward, and Babadas would follow, as best he could,
with the pot balanced on his head.
Baba sent Chanji and Adi Sr. ahead to Lucknow to arrange
a poor-feeding program there. Before Baba left Calcutta, he visited several
local relief centers doing charitable work, and gave money to one of the centers
to purchase and distribute 2,000 vests to poor children, to protect them against
the cold in the coming winter months. Baba arrived in Lucknow at 9:00 P.M. on
21 October 1943 and stayed at the only available hotel, the decrepit
Central Hotel. (No bulb; dusty cots; no running water, except during certain
hours; and not even a glass and flask for drinking water.)