"The Meherabad group will be subdivided: In one group will be Khorshed and Soonamasi; in another Kitty, Rano, Naja and Katie; in the third Soltoon and Dowla; and in the fourth Mansari, Jerbai and the Fatties [Jalu, Gulu and Meheru Dastur]. Every group will have separate cooking arrangements. Mehera, Mani, Meheru and Walu will stay at Pimpalgaon."
Khorshed then understood that the empty tin Baba had handed her was meant to store foodstuffs now that she would be cooking again, and so she cherished it and kept it in a safe place.
There was a hidden reason behind Baba's dividing the women at this time — and probably behind his recent work with Chacha, also. The country was about to be partitioned into two parts — India and Pakistan — and violence and civil chaos was breaking out everywhere in India.
When the government's plan for partition was announced, Baba snorted in disgust and remarked, "Two parts — it will be [divided into] 56!"
Ali Shah was an exceptionally pure jamali mast, with a gentle and mild temperament. However, toward the middle of July 1947, the mast started to express an unusually bad temper and ill mood, and so it became difficult for Baba to work with him. On 14 July, Baba sent him back to Ahmednagar with Pendu and Adi Sr. Ali Shah subsequently was brought to Meherabad, where Baidul began looking after him. With Ali Shah's departure, the Satara mast ashram came to an end.
Baba was to have begun fasting for an extended period from 10 July, but because Norina was to come, he postponed this. Now that she had arrived, Baba began fasting on Monday, 21 July 1947, for eleven days. Norina was put on silence for 40 days, ostensibly so that she could rest and improve her health.
On 22 July, Jalbhai brought a qawaal from Poona, who sang before Baba. At first, the singer was hired to sing before Baba every day for a month. But after two days, Baba remarked that because of his present fast, it was too difficult for him to bear the strain of listening to the qawaal — something he normally loved. The singer was therefore sent back to Poona.
On Friday, 25 July 1947, a family of Parsis from Panchgani was allowed to meet Baba. Tehmuras and Meherbai Satarawala had known of Baba since the days when he first occupied the Panchgani Cave in Tiger Valley in 1930, but this was their first meeting.