27. Ba : "Well, you know now, what Bapu is like !"

Bapu could never stand any slipshod work by any one. Not only this, he was extremely punctilious even about little things and minor details. Therefore, he used to pull up at once whosoever was careless in doing his job. Once someone came to stay with Bapu for a few days. At night one day, Bapu asked him to massage his feet. In reply, however, the visitor not being familiar with his ways,- just suggested, "If we were to engage an expert for this kind of work, how would that be?"

"No," Bapu replied, "because I like only some relative or friend to massage me."

"But I do not know massaging at all!" he countered. "However, if you teach me how to do it, I shall try."

Thereafter the novice did what he was told, but Bapu was not satisfied. So Bapu exclaimed, "Except Ba, none knows how to massage me properly."

Later, the visitor happened to talk to Ba of his trying experience to work under Bapu and casually asked, "But how have you been able to put up with Bapu all these years?"

Ba only laughed and answered, "Well, Bapu is a hard taskmaster. It is not so easy to work under him, as the people so often think it to be."