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CHAPTER 1 BONDING BETWEEN BABA, PRASANNA AND SRINIVAS SASTRY This chapter recounts the story of how bonding between Sri Shirdi Sai Baba, Srinivas Sastry & Prasanna came to be. Listening to the countless miracles that took place at Sri Sai Nilayam, one can imagine the intimate relationship the Sri Shirdi Sai Baba has with Sastry Uncle’s family. Given the kind of love and grace Baba has showered upon their family, especially upon Sastry Uncle and Prasanna Aunty, one might assume, and for good reason, that they must have been ardent devotees of Baba since a very long time. But one would be surprised at the fact that they hadn’t heard of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba or Shirdi until the year 1996. Until that year they would regularly go on pilgrimages to the holy places of Annavaram and Tirupati, the holy abodes of Sri Veera Venkata Satyanarayana and Lord Vishnu respectively. The former is believed to be an incarnation of the latter. During the late 1990’s Srinivas Sastry was employed with Glaxo, but owing to certain health issues he would resign from his job. While working, Srinivas had bought a flat in an apartment complex located in Kakinada. Later when he resigned from his job, his friend, one Suryanarayana suggested that they invest a certain amount of money and start a business. Unfortunately, the venture turned out to be a disaster, and suffering from huge financial losses, Srinivas would eventually shut the business down. Having invested all their money in an unfruitful venture, Srinivas Sastry and Prasanna were financially crippled and were staring at an uncertain future. The circumstances they found themselves in were so dire, that putting food on the table was also becoming impossible. In addition to their other responsibilities, they also had two beautiful children, both of whom were still studying at that point. The building complex in which Prasanna and Srinivas were staying had four more flats which were yet to be sold. The builder/contractor of that complex Jaya Kumar offered to help Srinivas by giving him a commission, if he were to help him sell the flats. While things were going on like this, the ever- merciful Baba was silently planning for receiving Srinivas at Shirdi. One fine day, seeing the plight of the Sastry family, Jaya Kumar proclaims to Srinivas that visiting Shirdi and taking darshan of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba would be the only panacea to end all their difficulties. Until that point in time they hadn’t known anything about Shirdi or Sai Baba. Prasanna tells her husband, Srinivas Sastry, to acquiesce to Jaya Kumar’s request and to go visit Shirdi. Jaya Kumar was already in Hyderabad and asked Srinivas to meet him there. From Hyderabad, they planned to drive to Shirdi in a car. As per the plan, Srinivas started from Kakinada, reached Hyderabad and stayed at his brother-in-law’s house which was located in Ramnagar. Jaya Kumar was staying in West Maredpally, and he asked Srinivas to meet him at his house by 4:30am next morning. Reaching Maredpally from Ramnagar that early in the morning was rather difficult in those days owing to the limited availability of autorickshaws, especially at a time when the whole city would be fast asleep. Braving the odds, Srinivas gets ready by 3am and waits for an autorickshaw at the nearby stop. What happens next has no explanation, and only proves that divine are the ways of God. Miraculously, an autorickshaw shows up and asserts “Aren’t you too headed to West Maredpally? In fact, I’m headed there myself, let me drop you there” Srinivas was more than happy at his good luck and immediately boards the autorickshaw. It was not until after he arrived at the destination, that he began to wonder – ‘How did he know where I was headed? Neither did he ask me nor did I tell him? How did the autorickshaw happened to show up at the opportune moment?’ He assumed these favourable circumstances were the result of sheer luck and his good fortune. At that point in time, people didn’t have the knowledge or the realization to understand that all of this was in fact a miracle of Baba and none else. However, shortly afterwards, this would change, once and for all! Srinivas’s Shirdi pilgrimage went off smoothly without a hitch and before you know it he was back with his family in Kakinada. One day, Deepthi and Kartik after returning from school tell their parents that " Soon, Dad is going to land a wonderful job". Prasanna and Srinivas were pleasantly surprised at this proclamation by their children and ask “What makes you say so?” To which they respond: “Mom, while getting down from the bus we met a tall man wearing a white dress and he professed that Dad would soon land a very nice job”. Half puzzled and half scared, Prasanna ran into the balcony to see, who it was. But no one was there. Prasanna and Srinivas thought that may be their children made up the story, because Deepthi and Karthik were only 4 and 3 years old. Srinivas continued to pursue his job search, he received an opportunity with a pharmaceutical company based out of New Zealand. He was to deposit INR 150,000, and it was not trifling amount. Since he didn’t have the necessary funds, he asked his mother if she was able to help him. Unfortunately, she too didn’t have such a large sum of money, hence Srinivas let go of that offer. Based on his previous experience, Srinivas started applying to jobs through various consulting and staffing firms based out of Mumbai. He applied through one staffing firm named MELCO MANAGEMENT and another firm whose name, was unfortunately forgotten. Within twelve days, Srinivas received a call letter for a government job in Saudi Arabia and he was asked to submit his passport and deposit INR 25,000 in cash. He immediately started for Mumbai, submitted all the documents, paid the asked amount and decided to visit Shirdi. During the train journey, he met a person and both began chatting. The person casually suggests that Srinivas should not to go to Saudi as the culture and life style were very different and it would be very difficult for Indians to adjust. He further told him not to accept the job, even if he were selected. While Srinivas was in Mumbai taking care of the documentation, Prasanna received a letter addressed to Srinivas, from MELCO Management stating that he landed a job in Doha, Qatar. The joining letter stated that he was to report within the next 15 days. After Shirdi darshan, Srinivas returned to his house in Kakinada and came to know about the joining letter. He was in a dilemma because he had already handed over the passport and along with INR 25,000 to another consultancy. He was in a real fix and didn’t know what to do. Two days later, he receives a call from the other consultancy with the news that the job would be on hold for two months as it was Ramzan season, and that he should come and collect the passport along with the sum paid earlier. In addition to that, they also provided the ticket fare for a second-class AC berth. These strange set of events would raise doubts in anyone’s mind: 1. How is it possible for anybody to land a job without an interview? 2. Landing a decent job in our own country is quite difficult, but Srinivas 3. received the joining letter from an organization based outside India 4. An unknown person recommending Srinivas not to accept the job in Saudi Arabia. 5. The first consultancy returning the passport and payment, while also arranging for a comfortable second-class ac travel. Consulting and staffing firms almost never return the passport or the payment until the candidate is placed with them. How often does one see these rather rare but fortunate events unfolding before their eyes? Realization suddenly dawned upon them that it was Shri Shirdi Sai Baba who was magically guiding them with his miracles all along. Appearing in various forms at various times, as a tall man donning white clothes to their children, as the auto-driver to Srinivas at Ramnagar and as the passenger in the train, to arranging a wonderful job for Srinivas out of Qatar. This realization ignited their hearts with pure love and devotion for Sai Baba and the gratitude left their eyes overflowing with incessant tears of joy. Isn’t it wonderful, the way in which Baba entered the lives of Prasanna, Srinivas, Deepthi and Kartik and sowed the seeds of faith and devotion in them? OM SAI RAM CHAPTER 2 BONDING BETWEEN BABA, PRASANNA AND SRINIVAS-II This chapter continues to describe the events related to the chapter title. In the last chapter, we learnt how Srinivas took care of all the necessary documentation upon receiving the offer letter. Since he had only fifteen days to report, he immediately began packing and left for Doha as per the joining date mentioned in the offer letter. He could not ask his wife, Prasanna, to join him as their children were too young and it would be better if they stayed back as there were resources in their immediate vicinity should any unforeseen circumstances arise. Prasanna, who was a devoted wife and loving mother, loved responsibilities but she was not alien to the imminent challenges with telecommunication that would arise. For example, back in the 90’s mobile phones were practically non-existent and those available were out of the reach of the common masses.

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