As soon as Gustadji would come to him, Baba would ask for a bottle of soda water, knowing that Gustadji liked it. Gustadji would hand him the soda, and after a sip, Baba would hand it back for him to drink. When he finished, Baba would ask for a second bottle, and again after a taste, he would give it to Gustadji. This would go on until 6:00 A.M., and Gustadji would return from Baba's bedside with a glowing smile on his face. This exchange was to be Baba's last amusement with his old companion.
At the beginning of October 1957, a copy of Listen, Humanity , about the 1955 Sahavas at Meherabad, was received by airmail. It was edited by Don Stevens and published by Sufism Reoriented, Inc. Baba was extremely pleased with it and wished that it be read as widely as possible before the coming sahavas.
On Tuesday, 8 October 1957, Baba went to Bombay for various medical treatments. He sat first in Adi Sr.'s car and stopped briefly on the way at Sarosh Motor Works, where Beatrice Vigo had a final opportunity for his contact before she left for America. At the Ahmednagar railway crossing, he switched cars and rode with the women mandali in Meherjee's car. They stopped for tea at Panvel, where a few beggars were given some coins.
In Bombay, Baba and the women stayed at Ashiana, where an air-conditioner had been fitted to the sitting room, which Baba appreciated. Eruch, Bhau, Baidul and Jalbhai were also there, but would sleep at Dina Talati's mother Rupamai Karani's home during the night.1 Chhagan, too, was called from Ahmednagar and shared nightwatch duties with Bhau. Savak had still not fully recuperated and resided with his family in Bombay.
An ayurvedic physician, Dr. Bachubhai, began treating Baba in Bombay. He would come to Ashiana to massage Baba's hip with different types of oil, and gave some ayurvedic oral medicine (guggul and bhasma), as well. But finding no satisfactory relief, Baba stopped the treatment from the 18th.
Meherjee had come to Bombay for a week and wrote about the treatment:
[Instead of helping], on the contrary, at times the pain increased and Baba felt a heaviness in the limb. The nights were very restless ... All these troubles, time and expenses of this Bombay trip has gone to the winds ... Baba has taken upon himself this suffering and pain, or whatever you may call it, for his own work, and no amount of medical or other treatment will alleviate the same unless its time has come, and then Baba will be his own [old] self physically. In fact, he will make himself as he wants to be.
Koduri Krishna Rao of Andhra had written for permission to have a life-sized statue of Baba made for a proposed center in Kovvur. Baba agreed to it and Bhikubhai of Meelan Studios had taken some photographs of Baba at Ganeshkhind in September to use as a basis. On 9 October, Adi Sr. visited the studios of a famous sculptor named B. V. Talim, 69. Talim was a legendary figure in Maharashtra. In 1954, he had sculpted the famous white Italian marble statue of Sai Baba that was placed above his tomb in Shirdi.
Footnotes
- 1.Rupamai's husband Hormusji had died in June 1957.