THOSE QUIET EARLY MORNINGS WERE VERY PRECIOUS

 
We returned with Baba to Meherabad from Nasik at the end of 1933, and we four girls — Mani, myself, Naja, and small Khorshed, with Soona Masi and Valu — now stayed on the Hill. We were the very first ones to be there after the Prem Ashram boys, and the atmosphere there was very beautiful. We could feel Baba's Love and Presence there, all that He had given to the boys. Baba had loved those boys very much, and they had loved Him. And at last we were staying in the room in the water tank where the Prem Ashram boys had lived, and where we had so often pictured Baba during those years when we were not allowed on the Hill.

Our room, the East Room, had and still has no proper windows, just very high ventilators set in the wall near the ceiling. We had only a bed, a trunk and a little wooden stool each; so we were not very crowded. When we were first there Baba slept in the little room adjoining the kitchen as His Cabin near the Samadhi had not then been built. Baba even slept outside sometimes, on some flagstones near His Samadhi where the Prem Ashram boys had sat.

The upper floor had not been added to the water tank, but before we came from Nasik Baba had the kitchen, where Mansari now stays, built for us in which to cook His and our food; and this is also where we ate. It was known as Baba's kitchen. The tin shed, where the Western and Eastern women who came later had their meals, was not yet there. Baba had bamboo screens put up to make a passage from our room to the kitchen, so we were very secluded.

Our life was very strict, and for several years we only left our room to go to the kitchen for work, or to the bathroom, or when Baba very occasionally took us for walks. I never walked in the compound, and for exercise I would walk in my room or in the kitchen. Later on Baba did allow us to play badminton where the tin shed now stands.

Soona Masi, and sometimes Kaku, Vishnu's mother, kept watch from a small room under the little raised water tank, and when anyone came up the Hill she rang a bell. This was the signal to us to close the door to our room until she rang again to signal that they had left. When we heard the all-clear bell we opened our door. So our lives were very strict, but we had Beloved Baba to ourselves; and how filled with joy we were! His love and His company were all we ever wanted.

Baba got up very early, and we would be up by half-past five or six, even in winter. After washing our faces and hands we heated Baba's washing and shaving water, and when Baba had shaved, I gave Him His tea and a slice of bread. That was our breakfast: tea and a slice of bread, or at other times tea and bananas. With just the very few of us there with Baba, those quiet early mornings were very precious and very homey.