My Mother — Page 130
130 light. He said to her, ‘You were unnecessarily harsh towards a serv- ant of mine over a matter of a mere one quarter of a rupee. Here is a quarter of a rupee’; and he gave her a newly coined shining quarter of a rupee. In the latter part of the night, in preparation for Prayer, she took a metal ewer full of water and emerged into the open under the clear moonlit sky. Presently she noticed a small shining object descending, from the sky. It struck the ewer evoking a metallic sound and rolled onto the ground. She picked it up and saw that it was a silver quarter of a rupee. She put it away carefully, intend- ing to preserve it as a momento. But through some carelessness it disappeared after a time. In 1910, she saw in a dream that she was driving in a carriage with her niece in the Sialkot Cantonment. Passing near the Cathe - dral she noticed that a large stone had fallen out from the tower of the Cathedral leaving a gap. She drew the attention of her niece to the gap and remarked that it looked unsightly. The niece pointed out that close by some stone masons were occupied with prepar- ing a stone like the one that had fallen out of the tower and that the gap would soon be closed. Some days later it was announced that King Edward VII of Great Britain had died and his son had succeeded him as George V. Mother was much averse to silly ceremonial and useless cus- toms current among rural families of the Punjab, particularly on the occasion of weddings. For instance, for the purpose of intro- ducing the bride and bridegroom to each other they were seated opposite each other among a large crowd of women and com- peted with each other in certain insipid, pointless games. On the occasion of his wedding Chaudhri Bashir Ahmad was summoned