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his own. In his cupboard, you could find a large collection of
bunches of keys. He himself did not know which bunch
belonged to whom. The host was bound to be troubled at the
loss of the key-bunch. Gradually, the people came to know of
this habit of his, and they would care for their keys when
Vasantrao was scheduled to visit them.

Vasantrao had an amazing wit. Once Vakil Saheb was
returning from Akola. Vasantrao’s mother lived in Akola and
was a devoted worker of the Rashtriya Sevika Samiti. Vakil
Saheb met her there. When Vakil Saheb came across Vasantrao,
he said, “I met your mother, she was worried about you. Why
don’t you write her?” At this, Vasantrao remarked, “Vakil Saheb,
can it ever happen? I write her letters regularly, but I forget to
post them.” Saying this, he took about 40 letters from his
cupboard and placed before Vakil Saheb.

After Vasantrao was released from his responsibility in the
Sadhana, he became active in the Sangh work again. On this
occasion, the trustees of the Sadhana held a farewell party for
him. He was leaving after his dedicated work over 25-30 years.
The trustees decided to present him a wristwatch on this
occasion for his long distinguished service. It is natural for a
farewell to be a emotional occasion. When Vasantrao stood up
to address the gathering, he said, “I worked in the Sadhana for
25-30 years, still the trustees of the weekly could not recognize
me well enough. Had they recognized me, they would not have
given me a watch, rather they would have given me the calendar,
because I was never careless about the time, the difficult thing
is that I often forgot the date.” It often happened with Vasantrao
that he went to a place on Monday or Wednesday when he was
supposed to be there on Tuesday. His greatness lay in the fact
that he admitted his mistakes openly before others, without any
pretension.

Once Vasantrao fell ill and his back was stiff. He was forced
to bend down 90 degrees and walk. He had to do all his things
this way. About this time, a Sangh official came on tour. He found
Vasantrao sitting in the wheelchair bending at 90 degrees. He
felt very sad at this. Very sentimentally he said, “Vasantrao, what