Tuesday, 5th December 1972. At lunchtime, a friend phoned that Baba had come to Whitefield. My wife suggested that we might go there, the same afternoon. I readily agreed. My grandson was to drive the car.

We started at 3:30 and reached about 4:15. The sight of numerous cars parked outside the main gate assured us that Baba was 'in'. We parked the car by the roadside, and walked in.

I proceeded to the inner gate of Baba's Residence, but, the volunteers there would not allow me in. Our party sat near the pandal round the big tree, but, got under its shelter when it soon began to drizzle.

I and my little grandson, Anand aged 8 got under the chhajja of a window of the College Office. It appeared to me an endless wait. For, Baba did not come out till it was almost 6 P.M. It was already getting dark. Outside the inner gate, there was a small crowd; ourselves among them, inconspicuously by the edge of the road. Anand was hungry and restless. I thought within myself that I would not come again in a hurry.

Everything changed as soon as Baba came out. He acknowledged the Pranams of the crowd, talked a word or two to a couple of American ladies who had been waiting under a tree, and walked, straight to where I was standing. With His face beaming, and a gracious smile, He said to me, "I am happy to see you.” I bent low and touched His feet. All my grouse had vanished. I felt overwhelmed.

Baba took my hand in His, and kept it, while He moved forward and I with Him, with my grandson following close!

Many onlookers took flash snaps. One of them said to me, as we neared him "You are very fortunate." I whispered, "It is all Baba's Grace.”

Then, Baba released my hand, and saying, "Come tomorrow morning,” and blessing Anand with Vibhuti, He got into a car and drove away.

That grasp, of my hand in His, is a great event in my life. It was a clasp of Grace.

As the result of an injury received by me, during the course of the "St. Philomena Church Riots" in Mysore, where I was City Magistrate, in 1937, I had developed an inability to write with my hand. I managed to do my writing assignments using typewriter most of the time. After retiring from Government Service, 20 years ago, the disability increased, until I was lately unable even to sign my name on a cheque.

It was a handicap, which affected me deeply. All sorts of treatment, including mantra and tantra had been tried, but, in vain. After my first Darshan of Baba, I used to apply a little of "the Vibhuti, He had given, daily on my hand. There was improvement, but, not enough for me. I had once said, jokingly, long before I saw Him, that I would believe in Him, if He cured me of my writing disability. But, I had never mentioned it to Him, or even thought of it when I was in His Presence. But, the miracle has actually happened!

Ever since my Darshan on the evening of the 5th day of December, when Baba had grasped my hand, there has been remarkable improvement in my writing capacity. The fact of Baba's holding my hand had so stunned me that it drove away all thoughts from my mind. It, was only a fortnight later, on the 19th December, Dattatreya Jayanti, that it struck me with a flash, that the inexplicable improvement was entirely due to the Baba contact.

The more I dwell on it, the more the Truth of this grows on me. I do not seek to convince anybody; but, I am myself convinced, that, as He has so often said, Baba is an Avatar of Datta, my Patron Deity, after whom I am named Om Sathya Sai Datta.