As instructed by Baba, everyone had to keep awake the whole night of Thursday, August 20th. (1953) So Baba told Bhau, “Since you all have to stay awake, perform a play.” It was on short notice, but nevertheless Bhau wrote a play based on the Indian story of Durgadas (a devotee of the goddess Durga, (1) in which a queen, Begum Gulnar (played by Elcha), expresses her love to Durgadas (Vishnu) by catching hold of him and attempting to make love to him. Durgadas spurns her love and she, insulted, threatens to have him beheaded by an executioner (Aloba). The commander of the army, Dilerkhan (Nilu), wanted to save him and so informed Gulnar’s husband, King Aurangzeb (Bhau) of the queen’s injustice.
Aurangzeb goes to Gulnar and says: “I have become old and cannot make love to you; yet you should not act in this way. In spite of it, I forgive you.”
All the men did justice to their roles, but Elcha and Aloba were the source of the greatest merriment. Aloba’s entry on stage as the executioner was off cue, his sword swinging ferociously at the wrong time. Baba was in fits of laughter.
Elcha (Gulnar) forgot his lines and when Bhau (King Aurangzeb) told him about his having grown old, Elcha ad-libbed: “You old fogey, why don’t you go off into the jungle? Why don’t you die so I can have some fun!” This made Baba laugh so much his cheeks turned pink. Had Elcha remembered his proper lines, there would not have been this much scope for comedy. Baba praised Elcha, telling him he had enjoyed his part the most.
(1) Durga is the goddess of the universe worshiped in different forms one of which is Parvati, the wife of Shiva.
Lord Meher, Bhau Kalchuri, Original Publication, Vol. 12, p. 4211.