First Grain of Sand — Page 145
TRANSFER TO MOSCOW 129 I realized whenever the tram passed by that its passengers would look into our car and notice that someone is being escorted by two police officers. The officers noticed this as well and had me then sit on the floor. When I arrived at the Moscow prison, the two officers who had been escorting me handed me over to the prison officers and left. The first question I was asked by one of the Moscow officers was: 'Is there a God?' I very boldly answered him: 'Yes, there is a God. Annoyed by my reply, he blurted some foolish nonsense and left. After a while, while still waiting in the office to be taken to a cell, someone gave me bread that was so unappealing and sour that I began to wonder if this is the type of food I would be served here. This bread appeared even worse than the bread in Tashkent. A few days later, while I was still in a solitary room on the fifth floor, I was so famished that I would even look for a piece of that type of bread so that I could eat anything. After registering my name in the office in Moscow, they put me in a room on the first floor that contained seven or eight other prisoners. I remem- ber very clearly that whenever it would be time for dinner and the door to the room opened, all the inmates would approach the guard at the door, who was often a Muslim, to get some food. However, I remained standing where I was quietly. After everyone had taken their portions, I would then come forward and take my ration of food. In the middle of the night, guards had the ability to look through a viewing flap on each room's door to see the prisoners inside. When I would rise in the middle of the night for Tahajjud Prayers, a guard opened this viewing flap and glanced inside, and