Shirdi Diary Of GS Kharpade: First Visit In December, 1910

Dadasaheb Khaparde arrived in Bombay from Pune and with his eldest son Balakrishna went to Shirdi on 5th December. He stayed there for seven days and on getting permission from Sai Baba to depart on 12th December, arrived in Akola on 13th December. Normally, he travelled by the first class in days when there were three to four classes of railway travel.

However, on this occasion as he did not have sufficient money on his person, he travel led by the second class and reached Amraoti on 19th December via Akot. It is recorded that he walked down from Amraoti railway station to his residence! That a person of Dadasaheb's standing should even have no money to hire a vehicle to go to his residence may cause great surprise.

Dadasaheb's annual income by way of legal practice at one time was of the order of rupees 90,000 to 95,000 when there was no income-tax legislation and living was cheap. Yet the state of affairs described above was inevitable in the circumstances as Dadasaheb lived beyond his means.

At one time, he had seven horses including two Australian-bred; two carriages, one state and the other ordinary, with staff to look after them. He was generous to a fault and gave shelter to a number of families. He kept an open house and his house was always full of guests on whom he spent lavishly for their comfort and entertainment including nautch parties!

Now the reader can appreciate why he had to foot the distance from the railway station to his residence. The account of this visit as reported in Shri Sai Leela appears to be complete on comparison with the narration in the biography.