Back in the days when Shastriji Maharaj held festivals at the temple in Bochasan, merely 200 devotees would attend. At this time the grains, rice, vegetables and pulses required for the prasad were provided by Sarabhai who instructed the grocer to have the foodstuffs delivered directly to Bochasan. My mother who was greatly influenced by my grandfather did not approve of Sarabhai’s actions. My grandfather had heard that those who followed Shastriji Maharaj tended to loose all their worldly possessions and ultimately would become very poor if not beggars! Due to his deep love and affection he feared that this would happen to Sarabhai, hence affect the future of his grandsons. He had aspirations for his grandsons to qualify either as a doctor or a collector, (a collector’s occupation was highly regarded at that time), and to ensure that we (both grandsons) gain a skilled profession, he personally supervised our education by keeping us under his care in Nadiyad.
Dada personally looked after Babu since the age of two months; he did not trust anyone else. Babu was not allowed out of his cradle until he was two and a half years old! Dada was very protective of Babu and particularly anxious of his health. P. Diwaliba’s health was poor and she found it difficult to breast-feed. At that time, powdered milk was not considered nutritious hence my grandmother would take me out very early in the morning to the other young mothers of the family and would insist that they breast-fed me before their own children. To his grandmother, Babu was as dear as life itself. Babu’s grandfather was a very highly regarded person in the community, therefore the grandson was thought of as a Brahmin and the young mothers almost felt it was an honour to be asked and did so willingly.
Dada owned two properties in very close proximity of each other in Nadiyad – one called Kadki nu Ghar and the other known as the Delo. Dada would spend his time with other elders of the community at the Delo, sometimes the elders would stay over-night and together they would smoke their pipes as a pastime. Babu would normally stay with Ba overnight but would sometimes ask to go to his Dada who was at the Delo. At this late hour, the gates would be opened and Babu taken to the other house. No sooner had Babu arrived and he would ask to be taken back to Ba. This to-ing and fro-ing would often continue for hours, yet no one complained or even spoke of reprimanding Babu. Everyone adjusted to Babu. Due to this fact Babu remained weak and fragile up to the age of five or six.
Once when I was two or two and half years of age, my grandmother gave me adiyo (herbal extract – a mild form of sedative) and put me to sleep in my cradle. The adiyo got stuck in my throat, causing foaming at the mouth. I began to cry and my grandmother became very worried, crying for help she ran out of the house requesting that some one summon a doctor. But who would be free at this time of the morning? Meanwhile during this commotion Babu must have swallowed the castor oil, because he had managed to climb out of the cradle and was sitting at the top of the stairs. Dadima came back to the cradle to find Babu missing! Panic-stricken she and the others, who had come to help, started to search for Babu. A few of them remarked that “only a few minutes ago you were shouting for help that something had happened to your Babu, but he is no-where to be seen” … what could Dadima say? Just then, one of the men who had come to help glanced up and saw Babu, lifting him he brought him down and remarked that Babu did not appear to be unwell, Dadima was so embarrassed by the whole episode but what could she say?
In the neighbourhood, Dada would only allow those he trusted to play with Babu; but there were very few people that he trusted enough! On one occasion, Babu was laid down in his cradle and given a piece of dusmi (sweet chapatti – which was his favourite!) to eat whilst Dadi continued with her daily chores. Suddenly Babu started to cry so Dadi began to rock the cradle. However, this did not help, Babu continued to cry even louder than before. On closer inspection, Dadima found that Babu was fighting to keep his dusmi from a rat, which was trying to snatch it away from him. She saw that on one end of the dusmi was Babu and on the other end, the rat! Babu was brought up by his grandparents surrounded by a lot of love.
When he was young, his favourite colour was red. Red velvet trousers and jacket and a matching red velvet embroidered hat were specially sewn as a new year’s gift for Babu. Dressed in his new clothes, he accompanied Dada to wish all the neighbours a happy new year. Wherever he went, everyone was so pleased to see Babu that he was almost always given a gift of a rupee or half a rupee. On that particular day Babu managed to collect quite a few rupees. However, Dada also reciprocated the gesture wherever we had been.
Dada was quite popular and was always invited to various functions and festivals. During my early childhood, I had a quiet nature and was very easy going, which meant I did not get into any kind of mischief. I had formed a habit of living in harmony with others as well as appearing to be good in the eyes of everyone. During the festival of holi, the neighbours would come and tease me by covering me with a mixture of dung and clay. Even though I did not enjoy this, I would simply stand and allow them to carry on without retaliating. In the same way, I was not particularly interested in any games at that age. My education and being useful to my grandfather were more important. At the Diwali festival, children would play with fireworks. For just Rs.5 we could purchase plenty of fireworks. At night I would sit on our doorstep and watch whilst other children played with fireworks. I never wanted to play with fireworks myself, I was content to simply sit and watch.
Sometimes I would visit Santram Maharaj (Jankidasji of Karamsad) with my Dada, at that time Maharaj would give me prasad. Any of Dada’s friends that visited Santram Maharaj would always make sure they too brought back prasad for me.