Sai’s ‘Visiting Card’ in Pune…

Jolted at the sudden mishap she screamed, calling out, ‘Babaaaa…” and the rest was ‘His-story’. Recounting a fatal road accident involving an 8-year old ‘kite-boy’, Mrs Anasuya Rao from Pune narrates a ‘sour turned soulful’ May story dates back to 1975, illustrating yet another Rescue-Act of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai…

We were posted in Pune several years ago and were driving to the ‘Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Bhajans’ at the house of Col Soman, in Somwarpet. My husband, Gen BDP Rao, who never used his official car for private purposes, was driving. We were only about a mile away from the venue, driving through a shopping centre, when a little boy of about 8 years old, ran across the road with a kite in hand and was hit by our car. He fell down unconscious. We were shocked and I cried out ‘Baba!’

There were two clinics nearby – I ran into the first clinic, but the doctor refused to come. In the second, a lady doctor, walked into the car with me.

By the time, I returned to the car, the car had been turned around and was pointing in the opposite direction. The boy had been shifted into the rear seat of the car by a small built man and there was another man in the driver’s seat. My husband told me that when they first appeared he had told them that it was not his fault since he was going slowly and the boy had dashed across the street and hit the car. And the driver replied: “I know it’s not your fault.” My husband, who never lets anyone drive his car, was quietly sitting in the front seat. The man driving the car said, ‘These doctors do not know anything, but there is a Nursing Home further down the road. Come along – we are taking him there.’ So, the five of us went to the Nursing Home. Coincidentally, the boy’s uncle was coming out of the Nursing Home, with some medicines. He recognized his nephew and went to call the child’s parents.

I ran to find a doctor, but he said he was off duty. By the time I got back, with a doctor, the boy was standing on the table on which he had been placed. He had his arms around the driver and was asking him not to leave him. My husband has told me that the driver had sprinkled a few drops of water on the child’s face and the boy sat up immediately, by the time his parents came. While I was talking to the mother of the boy, the two men who brought us to the clinic were leaving. My husband asked them if he could drop them, but they said they had their motorbike near the accident site and did not need a lift. By the time he followed them out, they had disappeared.

In spite of the events, though terribly shaken, we proceeded to the bhajan and attended the last 15 minutes and Aarathi. The photo of Baba in the bhajan hall and the driver’s face seemed uncannily similar. Who else but Baba could decide whose fault it was and Who else but Baba could rouse an unconscious boy with a few drops of water and then disappear from an isolated Nursing Home with no trace. Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba had come to our rescue that day.