Hazrat Maulvi Nooruddin - Khalifatul-Masih I — Page 280
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES Hadrat Maulw i Nur-ud-D i n ra — Khalifatul Masih I 280 Bombay, a thousand miles distant. I had not travelled beyond Amritsar before and from that moment onward everything was new to me. We arrived in Bombay on August 31 and I went on board the S. S. Koerber, 4,000 tons displacement, at noon the next day. My father shook hands with me in token of farewell at the foot of the gangway, and beyond the exchange of the customary salutation not a word was said on either side. Within an hour of the ship’s moving from the dock I became seasick, a condition of which I had no warning and knew nothing. The monsoon was blowing at full force and there followed four days of acute, undiluted, bewildering misery. Once out of the monsoon zone, every moment of the voyage proved delightful. After four days of starvation I was ravenously hungry and enjoyed every morsel of the excellent food provided on board. We made Trieste on the afternoon of September 14, travelled north by express train to Ostende, crossed over to Dover and arrived in London early on the morning of September 16. London was then the capital of the world. Except for the so-called submerged fourth, life was gracious and comfortable and ran smoothly. I was fortunate enough to be provided with suitable accommodation as a paying guest among people who proved very friendly and by whom I was treated throughout with kindness and affection. I settled down to the study of law, and soon felt completely at home except for the separation from my parents. I wrote home every week and heard from them every week. I also wrote regularly to Hadrat Khalifatul Masih ra who honoured me by writing back to me affectionately with his own hand. I wrote to him quite frankly about