to have one of the family. After she had the first baby Baba told me I could go home; not before. Perhaps I had to be "safe", who knows?!

So this is where Hedi and I stayed in London. We used to go to Baba's hotel. But at certain times, in London, you couldn't get there by bus, traffic was impossible, so we’d take a cab as they knew round-about ways. But often there were parades and so on. There was always something in the way, something to block us, when we wanted to go to Baba's meeting. I'd say, "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late", but somehow I reached the hotel at the last moment.

Many people came to see Baba and he also had personal talks with us. I don't remember what mandali were there, but I recall Delia de Leon, Anita Vieillard, Dr. Nilu and I think Kaka. I don't know if Adi was there. You see, when Baba is there you don't remember who is with him.

For four days we were with Baba, then he went off to America and luckily I didn't know it was the last time I met Baba face to face. But it still was a wonderful time, those four days. When you met Baba again, all the time between '52 and '56 or between '46 and ’52 seemed non-existent. When you were with Baba again, it's just like meeting a good friend that you haven't seen for years, like when I met Kitty again in Switzerland in '78 - after ’32 years. It didn't feel as if we hadn't seen each other for so many years, it felt like yesterday. With Baba it is even more so.

Also you see the way Baba takes care of you even when you are not with him, and he hasn't given you any directions. When I first came home I had to take care of the children of my sister for about a year. They had fled from the Russian zone and we got them out of Germany absolutely starved and ill. We had to have them operated on. With my mother I looked after them. Then I started work in a students' hostel as a secretary, but I didn't like that so much. Before I left for Cannes and then India, I had done all sorts of things, I was very young, but I hadn't found my real profession. I didn't worry. I could always work - a woman can always find work, even washing dishes, it doesn't matter. My father died and our finances weren't as before, but Baba takes care that we don't worry.

In this student hostel, I liked the work but I felt it's not for me because it's all womens’ rule and I didn't like that so much. Then someone told me that they are looking for a telephone operator in the big Siemens telephone plant in Switzerland. I said all right. In the hostel I had also handled the telephone and microphone to give news. When I was younger they said I had a good voice for the telephone and microphone. So I went there to interview for the work, though I had never trained or planned to become an operator; I had something better in mind. I went there and there was a very modern telephone switchboard with buttons, not old-fashioned strings. I had on a hat which made me look like a Salvation Army officer: the girl must have thought, Am I going to work with such a person! But I did this work and it was very nice because in Switzerland you have to know several languages. We had to talk in French, English, German, Italian, with many countries.

After some time I told Baba this isn't the work I want to do the rest of my life. I always thought I would be married. But I would almost get engaged and at the last moment either the man died or got killed in an accident, or, at the last moment, I felt No, I can't. I wasn’t looking for men, they all came to me. That's why I thought I must have a work which gives me satisfaction. Every time I was almost engaged, always something happened, a plane crash, or death by a car crash, or at the last moment I felt I can't, it won't work. You see, if they don’t have enough love for Baba it doesn't work. You can't be married to someone who doesn’t love Baba. It is the deepest thing.

So then I thought I should work hard, go to school. I have a habit of talking to Baba like my father, a very high father! So I put my problems before Baba and ask him even small questions. I wait and see what he tells me. If he doesn't tell me, I just try to listen.

Suddenly an engineer came to the office and said, "Look here, it's a new thing in Switzerland. We are going to start training blind people for the telephone work. In Germany