Meher Baba's Life & Travels
VISITS TO THE WEST
BY
MEHER BABA
9th VISIT : 1936
20th October to 23rd November
1936 Visit to the West Route :
Departed Ahmednagar, India by car to Bombay via Poona - 19th October
Departed Bombay ( 20th ) by the Kathiawar Mail train to Karachi.
Arrived Karachi ( 22nd ) stayed 2 days with Pilamai's family.
Departed Karachi ( 24th ) on the 24-seat Imperial Airways Hadrian biplane for Baghdad.
The plane brief refuelling stops at Gwador, Sharjar, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Basra and landed Baghdad ( 25th ).
Left Baghdad by the Taurus Express
train( 28th ) to Kirkuk the same day and took a taxi to Mosul. Then by train to Tell Kotchek on the Syrian - Iraqi border.
The train continued onto Istanbul, stopping at the major cities - Aleppo, Adana, Konya, Karaman..... finally Istanbul ( Constantinople ) on the ( 31st ).
Departed the same day on the Orient Express for Paris via Sofia, Belgrade, Zagreb, Trieste, Venice, Milan, Geneva arriving in Paris ( 3rd Nov. ).
Took the train to London via Calais, ferry to Dover and then train to London.
Left London ( 6th Nov. ) for Zurich via Paris and Basel, arriving the same day in Zurich.
On the ( 8th ) took the train Paris. Drove the same day to Chateau de Galluis outside Paris and stayed the night then back to Paris. Left Paris ( 10th ) for Marseilles.
Departed Marseilles ( 12th ) on the Viceroy of India ship for Bombay via Port Said-Suez Canal Aden reaching Bombay ( 23rd November ).
Baba was driven to Parekh Hospital at Khetwadi where Beheram's wife Perin had given birth to a baby girl six days before.
Baba was then driven to Nasik and later Rahuri and Meherabad.
October 1936
On Monday, 19 October 1936, Adi Sr. drove Baba to Bombay, and the next evening 20th at 9:00 P.M., accompanied by only Kaka and Chanji, Baba boarded the Kathiawar Mail train for Karachi. (There were Hindu-Muslim communal riots in Bombay, prior to Baba's departure.)
Reaching Karachi two days later - 22nd, Baba met Pilamai and her family, and his maternal aunt Banu Masi and her family.
Baba and the mandali left Karachi on the 24th on the 24-seat Imperial Airways Hadrian biplane. It was his ninth foreign journey. Baba's first international air travel proved distressing for Kaka and Chanji who
suffered from headaches and vomited during the flight, due to severe turbulence from Bahrain, Kuwait to Basra. ( Then flew to Baghdad )
Arriving in Baghdad on the evening of Sunday, 25 October, Baba and the mandali checked into a hotel. The next day they took a tour of Baghdad. On the 27th, Baba visited the shrine of Hazrat Abdul Qadir Gilani — a Sufi Perfect Master of his time. Baba remained in the Muslim tomb for some time, but made no comment on his work.
News was given to them at the Baghdad train station that there was a breach on the railway line at the crossing of the Turkish border, with no definite information as to when the line would be repaired and ready for travel. This report was, at first, vexing because Baba had planned to proceed to England from Iraq by train.
Courtesy of Lord Meher ; Bhau Kalchuri - Vol.6-7 : p 2041 ( 1st Edition )Lord Meher Online Edition Page 1739
