On Sacred Ground

Keeping Things Warm

Baba often liked things warm. He kept the windows closed to avoid drafts, no matter the heat. Bhau Kalchuri, who frequently sat with Baba as “night watchman” in the latter years, recalled: “During the hot summer in Poona, the doors and windows of Baba’s room remained tightly closed as was His wish. Being inside His room, one felt like one was inside an oven!” (Lord Meher, p. 5069).

Baba also liked his drinks warm, including his soda. When Baba was staying in Satara in the mid-1950s, it was the job of Meherwan Jessawala, Eruch’s younger brother, to obtain and transport the sodas for Baba. Crates of plain soda water containing two dozen bottles each would be loaded into a truck belonging to Bhagirath Tiwari, a Baba lover from Ahmednagar, and sent to Satara. This same truck was normally used to transport goats and had a picture of a goat on the side with the logo “Goat Express.”

Once the soda arrived, the women mandali would put the bottles in the sun to warm them. When they were at Meherazad, they stored the warmed bottles in a pink box, pictured below, which they had lined with felt to keep the soda warm. The box was kept in Baba’s bedroom so that a few bottles of warm soda were always available whenever Baba wanted it during the evening.

The pink box now can be seen in the sitting room of Baba’s house at Meherazad. A grey box, shown below, was used to carry Baba’s sodas when he traveled and will soon be on display in Baba’s kitchen at Meherazad.

—Clea McNeely for Avatar Meher Baba Trust, 18 December 2014