Without hesitating, Sohrab Hansotia jumped into the river and brought him to safety on the bank.
This was another occasion when Baba saved Rustom, for if Baba had not suddenly appeared, Rustom would have certainly drowned.
The following day, Saturday, 9 June 1928, the mandali began leveling a meadow with a roller for the students' playground. They were given tea four times that day to sustain them in the strenuous work. The school had already started from the very first day in Toka (4 June), and Baba scolded Dhake and Manekar for arriving late for their classes. Rustom's wife Freiny and their two sons, four-year-old Mehlu, three-year old Falu, and their one-year-old daughter Meheru arrived the following day, brought by Adi Sr., and began staying in the new ashram. (Adi returned to Ahmednagar.)
On 11 June Baba ordered Kaikhushru Masa to dig a hole in the ground near the Table Cabin for a dhuni. Soon after, a heavy rain started and poured down throughout the rest of the day. The scenery around Toka was bucolic, but at night there were hordes of pestering insects. Snakes and scorpions were also found in abundance. Chhagan was an expert at killing snakes, and every night he would be required to demonstrate his skill.
Some sense of the hardships the mandali faced can be had from these lines from Chanji's diary of 11 June:
The heavy rains caused all work to be stopped — and though there was a distinct change in the atmosphere, the nuisance at night, particularly the hundred various sorts of worms and insects, also the risk of scorpion and snakebite — made all a little uneasy, and for a time upset. There was much congestion in the Makan [mandali's residence]; members who had been sleeping outside were forced to come in because of the rains. The inconvenience was all the more felt when three Hindu ladies and one gentleman [Chhagan's relatives] had to stay in the Makan for the night.
The dhuni was lit on Tuesday, 12 June 1928 at 7:30 in the evening, and Baba's arti was sung. That day a telegram was received from Meredith Starr, the man Rustom had contacted in England, stating that he had boarded a boat for India along with his fiancée (or paramour) and her sister, but without any boys. The British government had refused to allow the boys to emigrate. Baba was very annoyed at the news, for he wanted some boys from England in the school ashram.