"Every day Baba spent 15 to 20 rupees on fruit or sweets to give as prasad to the devotees who had come for his darshan. Every night I took some roti or cooked jowar to the mosque for him to eat. I would crumble about a third of the rotis and mix them in the milk and jaggery (unrefined palm sugar). Baba would eat a little and then push the plate away. Kondya would take the leftovers and the cooked jowar as Baba's prasad. Later I would give the other food to Baba. He would eat a little and place some in my mouth. Kondya would then get some bidas (a mixture of betel leaves, areca nut and lime) and offer it to Baba. Baba would eat some of the bidas and throw the rest to the devotees present, which they would eat with delight, as his prasad. Baba used to drink a lot of water after eating the bida. He really liked them so much that he would eat a lot of bidas regardless of the time of day or night. Hence, Kondya used to keep a stock ready for Baba. Later it was Radhakrishna Ayi who performed this seva. There were two cows and goats which some devotees had given as presents to Baba. Baba would drink milk and eat curd only sparingly. Later, all the devotees except for Mahalsapati and I would take their leave and go away from the mosque.
Baba would keep his head to the west (where the large photo of Baba is kept at present) and his feet towards the dhuni and go to sleep. I would keep my head to the north towards the nimbar and feet towards the steps of the mosque and sleep. Mahalsapati would sleep to the south of Baba by his left flank, with his head in the same direction as Baba and feet towards the dhuni. In deep sleep, our feet would get entangled with each other. By the time we woke up in the morning the state of our bodies would seem so funny, that we would burst out laughing. We could never make out whether our legs were really getting entangled on their own, or if Baba was purposely entangling them while we were asleep. Sometimes Baba's feet would be on ours, but if it happened the other way round and our feet came on top of his, we would feel guilty of a great desecration. This was the way we slept in the mosque. Normally we would be asleep by 9 or 9.30. After a while, Mahalsapati would get up, fill the oil lamps with oil, trim the wicks, and put the lid on the kolumba in which Baba kept the food, and put some firewood in the dhuni. Later, when Mahalsapati fell sick for a period of three to four years, I took over his work in the mosque including getting the chillim, Baba's clay pipe, ready for him
(Source: Saipadham Magazine)
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