5568   BRAIN'S UNNECESSARY QUESTIONS

had finished and the others were sipping the water and nibbling on the onion. They accompanied Aloba to Guruprasad. Baba asked, "What did you eat today?"

Their faces fell and dejectedly Shinde replied, "The food was not ready, Baba. We were waiting for it."

"Why wasn't it ready?"

"Dorabjee kept repeating, 'Just wait for five minutes, just five minutes more,' but even after half an hour we didn't get anything to eat. He was serving others, including Kamble, but not us."

"Did you pay him?"

"The moment we stepped inside."

"Forget about it now; you can eat here." So the three of them had their lunch in Guruprasad, and they never did find out why Dorabjee had behaved as he had. Afterwards Baba commented, "It is so strange. Kamble got his food. Why didn't you get yours?" They didn't know. Baba explained, "You were blaming Kamble in the beginning, but God had pity on him and he had his food, whereas you had to go without."

One day the women from Bombay came to Guruprasad. Baba asked what they had eaten. Nargis Dadachanji replied, "Brain and spinach."

Baba joked, "You have all had brain; now don't eat my brain!" (This meant tire him with unnecessary questions.)

Baba once asked Bapai Desai (Mansari's sister-in-law), "Do you eat chicken?" Bapai said no. "That's good", Baba replied. "Otherwise you would have to be born as a hen!"

Bapai Desai's daughter, Meheree, ‡ had passed her inter-science exam but had not been able to gain admittance to medical school. Baba advised her, "Take the bachelor of science course and then apply to medical school. If you don't become a doctor, I will not see your face again." All thought Baba was joking, but he replied, "I am not kidding. I say this seriously."

Meher began weeping, then uttered, "If I do not get accepted to medical school, I will never have Baba's darshan. What an unbearable punishment."

Baba asked, "Why are you crying and afraid? Try and see what happens." Accordingly, after attaining her bachelor of science degree, Meher was accepted to medical school and became a doctor.

On another occasion, Bapai Desai's husband, Minoo, had come with them to Poona. The darshan was scheduled to start