Eruch sat beside Baba and Darwin Shaw sat directly in back of them; Darwin too did not sleep. Adi had trouble keeping awake, and Baba teased him about it. The light above Baba's seat was kept burning all night.
Baba later commented, "I was doing a lot of work [during the flight]."
For Meherjee, Baba's "work" involved many lessons in humiliation! For example, although it had been announced that the plane was to land in Dallas at 1:00 A.M., a few minutes later, Baba directed Meherjee to go ask the stewardess when they would be landing. After another ten minutes, Baba told him to go ask again. This happened several more times and Meherjee said, "Baba, she will wonder if we are mad or jungli [uncouth, ignorant]!" However, Baba had his own reasons and told him to ask, and the woman would always smile, give a courteous reply and not be annoyed at all.
Once during another plane flight everyone was sleeping after dinner. The stewardesses were also tired and were dozing at the rear of the plane.
Baba instructed Meherjee, "Go and ask our stewardess when I will get breakfast."
"But she is resting," Meherjee said.
"Wake her up and ask her."
Meherjee had to obey. Smiling, the young lady said that breakfast would be served in the morning.
When he returned and told Baba, Baba gestured, "I am feeling hungry. Get me something to eat now."
Meherjee had to go back and wake up the lady again, and she gave him some cereal and coffee. Baba hardly touched it, just crumbling a little of the food between his fingers. And Meherjee was further embarrassed to have to return the tray like that — practically untouched.
At other times, in the middle of the night, Baba would tell the mandali to go to the stewardess and ask when she was going to wake them up and when they were going to arrive at their destination. "But, Baba, she is sleeping," they would say.
"Call her!" they were ordered.
"Miss, miss, our boss wants to know when we will get to Los Angeles," for example. Surprisingly, the mandali found that the stewardesses were never angry about it. Baba had his own reasons for doing this. By waking someone up, he was giving the blessing of his contact to that person.
Baba and the group arrived at Los Angeles International Airport at 5:50 A.M., on Tuesday, 31 July 1956. It was drizzling and the skies were overcast.