I visited India for the second time in December 1982. We spent some time in Lonalva, Maharashtra, and then went to a village called Paud. There Shri Mataji arrived in a car and the trunk was opened. She explained that a very good fruit to help sooth down our hot, irritated livers was guava. She proceeded to hand out a guava to each of us to eat.


The village of Paud, 22 December 1982


Shri Mataji handing out guava (a small green fruit that is white inside) to each of us.


Everywhere we went in rural India, we attracted a crowd of curious onlookers... we were a group of about 120 "Westerners" from Canada, USA, Australia, and European countries such as Switzerland, UK, France and Italy. We all wore traditional Indian dress (plain white cotton for the men, saris for the ladies).


There were so few of us it was easy to get close for good photographs of Shri Mataji, even without a zoom camera.

Shri Mataji was concerned about our food, our health and our comfort throughout the time we stayed in India. She instructed our hosts in every village to cook mild food, without hot spices. She advised us not to stay out in the blazing sun. One day She saw me wearing a hat (following Her advice, I was protecting the top of my head from the sun). She warned me not to wear too tight a hat or it would restrict circulation to my scalp and not be good for my hair.

We travelled in buses and met up with Shri Mataji for some of Her programmes in rural villages, such as Paud.

 
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