CONVERSION..........ADVANCEMENT 109
gave him a shock and he retreated some five steps backwards. But seeing us well dressed, he presumed that we belonged to some well-to-do family. He assured us that he would try to get a cart for us. But owing to our being members of the Mahar Caste, no bullock-cart driver was willing to drive us. Evening was approaching and till 6 or 7 p.m., we did not succeed in getting a cart. Finally a cart-man agreed to take us in his cart. But he made it clear at the outset that he would not drive the can for us.
I had been living in the military area and driving a cart was not difficult for me. As soon as we agreed to this condition, he came with his cart and we, all of us children, started for Goregaon.
At a short distance outside the village we came across a brook. The cart driver asked us to eat our food there for no water was available elsewhere on the way. Accordingly, we got down from the cart and ate our food. The water was murky and mixed with dung. In the meantime, the cart driver also returned after having his dinner.
As the evening grew darker, the driver quietly boarded the cart and sat beside us. It became so dark soon, that, neither any flickering lamp nor any human being was visible for miles. Fear, darkness, and lonliness made us cry. It was well past mid-night and we were frightened. So scared were we that we thought we should never reach Goregaon. When we reached a ‘Naka’ (toll post) we jumped out of the cart. We made enquiries from the toll-collector (Nakadar) whether we could get anything to eat in the vicinity. I spoke to him in Persian. I knew how to speak in Persian and had no difficulty in speaking to him. He replied in a very curt manner and pointed towards the hills. Somehow, we spent the night near the ravine and early in the morning, we set off again on our journey to Goregaon. At last we reached Goregoan on the following day in the afternoon, utterly exhausted and almost half-dead.
The third incident relates to the period when I served in Baroda State. With a scholarship granted by Baroda State, I had gone for education abroad. After returning from England, in accord with the terms of the agreement, I came to serve under the Baroda