AN OLD FRAMED PHOTOGRAPH

 
A curious encounter occurred before leaving Hyderabad. One day, Eruch asked permission to visit the police commissioner to obtain documents verifying their identities, so they would not be stopped and troubled in every town by the local police.

Eruch went to the Hyderabad police station and was startled when the commissioner, named Mr. Reddy, asked, "Are you traveling with a silent man?"

Eruch said, "Yes".

The commissioner invited him to his house for tea, and Eruch, touched by the depth of the man's words, accepted. At his residence, the man's wife made tea. After fifteen minutes, the man left the room and returned with an old framed photograph. It was the same photograph of Baba as Merwan as a young boy with his high school cricket team in Poona in 1907.

The man asked, "Is the head of your party in this picture?"

Eruch said, "Yes".

The man said, "Tell him that I always remember him from our school days."

Afterwards the necessary documents were secured from the police station. From then on, not only in every town in the area were Baba and his men allowed to travel freely, but in every obscure outpost the local police had been informed not to stop them.