Hazrat Maulvi Nooruddin - Khalifatul-Masih I — Page 279
Hadrat Maulw i Nur-ud-D i n ra — Khalifatul Masih I PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 279 In the late afternoon Hadrat Khalifatul Masih ra used to adjourn into the open courtyard of his modest residence, which at that time of day was agreeably cool. There also I kept him company. One day he remarked: "This is the hour for games and sports. Have you no wish to partake of some kind of exercise?" I submitted respectfully: "Sir, I am happiest where I am. " Soon I had to beg for leave to go home and start preparing for my journey to England. My mother dreaded the long separation ahead, and I too shrank from plunging into the great unknown, and making an excursion into regions of which I knew little, and that little only at hearsay, among people whose faith, culture and manner of living were entirely alien to mine. So the preparation involved no excitement, and I experienced considerable apprehension and uneasiness. My passage from Bombay to Trieste was reserved by an Austrian Lloyd steamship which was scheduled to sail from Bombay on September 1, 1911. My parents, maternal uncle and a family retainer left Sialkot on the early morning of August 28, by train for Bat a la and arrived in the afternoon at Qadian. I took leave of Hadrat Khalifatul Masih ra the next day. He bade me an affectionate and prayerful farewell. He dictated certain directions and prayers which I noted down and also admonished me orally. He bade me write to him regularly. My mother was much comforted by her reunion with Hadrat Ummul Mu’min i n. Our party departed from Qadian the same afternoon for Bat a la and left for Amritsar by train where my mother, uncle and the retainer took train for Sialkot and my father and I caught the mail train for