First Grain of Sand — Page 136
120 FIRST GRAIN OF SAND spoke against me in their language, but I would inevitably under- stand something from what they were saying. This is how I occa- sionally came to learn of their plans and mischief. But I was not the only one to become aware of the malice of the Russian inmates. The soldiers and sergeants who were in my favour learned about these wicked ones as well and reported their depraved menacing behaviour to the ranking officer. In response, those planted inmates were either released from the prison, changed to a different room, or transferred to a different prison. This is how I repeatedly remained protected from such wicked people. This happened not just once but several times. I noticed that whenever these wicked people verbally or physically abused me, they were soon released, moved to a different room, or trans- ferred to another facility within just a couple of days. One time, a soldier came in my room unprovoked and began to give me a hard time and physically harass me, but this came to the notice of another soldier who was sympathetic towards me. Later I learned that the soldier who had been harassing me had been replaced by a new soldier. On numerous occasions, when I went out for a walk in their courtyard, the sympathetic soldier would alert the officers in the higher rooms to observe my behav- iour so that they could also gain a better impression of me. I vividly remember one occasion in particular when I was walking slowly in the courtyard with a long shawl draped around me. The officers in the upper level of the prison were watching me from their windows, while from the downstairs prison cells I was being monitored very closely by the Turkish prisoners from Tashkent and other prisoners from Bukhara who were consid- ered religious scholars. While walking, I was engaged in quietly