The Combined Diary
Installment 6. A Trip to Goa, and "Drifting"
September 1924 through January 1925, folios 33-36
Having returned to Mumbai after the frantic tour through the interior of India, Baba now decided to pay a visit to Goa. At this point Padri, fed up with the "merry-go-round" and Baba's endless "nig-nagging," begged to be excused; and the new tour was undertaken by Baba with Gustadji, Behramji, Masaji, and Vajifdar as his companions.
On the railway journey Vajifdar fell ill with fever. Instead of showing sympathy, Baba subjected the poor fellow to a "great onslaught"; and this appears to have precipitated his sudden recovery! A notable event during the Goa stay was the visit to the church in Panjun containing St. Francis Xavier's tomb.
At this juncture the Diary becomes very sparse and abbreviated in its coverage of Baba's activities; a three-month span is encompassed in a single diary page. Although it is not mentioned in these records, Mehera told us that in January of 1925 He composed the Gujarati Arti, "Bujaave Naar" while visiting Bombay and staying at the Bharucha Building, Dadar. In November Baba took silence for a week perhaps anticipating His great silence of the next year, though no one could have known this at the time. Over this period Baba appears to have been traveling intensively between Bombay and Poona and to other places in Maharashtra.
The Diary resumes its in-depth coverage with Baba's stay at Meherabad in late January 1925, as will be related in the next Installment.
Part 6: The Combined Diary
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