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The phone booth

Nellore, June 2001

Iknew Guruji in my school days when we were fellow pupils in Totapalli

Gudur, Nellore District. I didnt know him well then but I was aware ofhim as a prominent person on the campus.

The rst time I went to Shirdi I hadnt set eyes on Guruji for about thirty

years. Seeing him there I was overcome by a ood of emotions so powerful

that I was in tears most of the time and couldnt speak.

At the time of my second visit to Shirdi I was in dire straits nancially,

up to my neck in debt with the threat of poverty looming over my family. I

believed that the only solution was to sell my small shop in order to pay off

the creditors. On this visit I had the chance in darshanto tell Guruji all my

worries. I also placed a photo of the shop in his hands.

Guruji looked at the photo intently for some time, instructed me not to

sell the shop and said, Baba ashirvadam, reassuring me that I was in

Babas care.

I went back to Nellore calmer, but still somewhat anxious, having no ideaof the course of events that had been set in motion by Gurujis grace.

A long time prior to my trip to Shirdi I had applied for a telephone

connection for my shop, but nothing had come of it in spite of my repeated

requests. About ten days after I returned, I was coming out of the telephone

ofce where I had again been asking about the status of my application.

I was stopped outside the door by a stranger. He must have noticed the

frustration on my face because he asked me if I had any problems. I told

him about my futile attempts to get a phone connection. He wrote down his

name, Sivakumar, added his personal phone number and asked me to call

him in a week. Intrigued by this incident I asked in the ofce if they knew a

man of this name. I discovered that, in fact, he was a sub-divisional ofcer.

As I did not think it proper simply to ring him up, I went to see him

personally after a week had passed. He was very kind to me. He told mehe had recognized the picture of Sai Baba and Guruji I wore pinned to

my shirt. He said he also knew Guruji and had been to Shirdi. During our

conversation he advised me to open a phone booth in my shop as an

additional source of income.

After less than three weeks I nally got the connection and I was able

to install a computer and a conference-call facility. We were amazed anddeeply grateful. With much happiness we made our rst call from the new

phone booth to Saipatham in Shirdi. All our debts were cleared quickly. I

am now earning enough money to take care of my family in a decent way.

When I spoke to Guruji in Shirdi I was in a desperate situation. He simply

looked at the photo of my shop and reassured me of Babas grace. How

could I ever have imagined the blessings that would be showered on me?

He generously gave so much more than I dared ask for.

When I met Guruji in Shirdi for the rst time, I cried and cried. And even

now, after many months, tears come to my eyes each time I talk about him.

Srinivasulu Pannam, born in 1953, owns a telephone booth and lives in

Nellore, Andhra Pradesh.

SRI BABUJI: A businessman asks Baba for help in his business. Then when

he gets success, it brings him closer to Baba. What is oftenseen as an obstacle the world that obstructs, that is an

enemy, that is a nightmare to a Sai devotee it is a means. It

doesnt take him away from Baba. It is a tool that draws him

nearer and nearer to the object of his love.