VISITORS

A variety of visitors called on Dada all the time.Some were kept in waiting at the hall above the porch,and were called in turn to visit Dada in the main hall. Of course most were from Pune but there were a few VIPs from outside.

When the first state cabineit was formed in 1938 or so,many meetings were unofficially held at DD.,mainly because the ministers had no experience of managing government.Most of the ministers in the Kher ministry used to come.

Another prominent visitore was Late Shri Vaikunthlal Mehta,he used to hold long discussions with Dada.He was a remarkable man in physical terms. To look at him,one would imagine a slight breeze can blow him away.He often had lunch or dinner at DD.His meals consisted of 5 small purees-20mm-, small vati of milk,a spoonful of bhaji,and exactly one spoon of rice.How he could survive on this I dont know.Once he came with the prospective chairman of state transport,which was born that time.I forget his name.They were to stay the night. I made the arrangement at Swagat,which was vacant. Kaka was served a transfer order on the day of the Vastushanta]They had a cup of tea,and went back to DD.
Another VIP was the Late maharaja of gwalior,Jayajirao.Unlike others,he had made a prior appointment to have tea with Dada.We did not even have a decent crockery set,so I went to "Cheap Store" in camp and brought everything. The conical cups are from that meeting.

Prof P.K.Atre, Master Vinayak used to come often to solve some money problems of Navayug Film Studio.However Dada refused to become Chairman.But I remember we used to get free passes for screenings of their films!


shrini