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LAI essa4:Je 3rom JlVleherctzad 1:l5pm on 13th August 2002, Au Akbar Shapurzaman, Baba’s Aloba, went to his Beloved Lord and Master. Shortly after coming out of surgery in hospital in Pune, Aloba expired in Intensive Care of pulmonary embolus. Aloba, devoted to Baba since boyhood days in the Prem Ashram, served and adored Baba until the very end. Aloba’s body will be brought back to Meherazad to be placed in Mandali Hall in front of Baba’s chair where Baba’s close ones will gather together and pay their respects. Aloba’s body will be taken from Meherazad to Meherabad at 7 a.m. on August 14th, where he will pay his last respects at Baba’s Samadhi and then to rest in Mandali Hail in the Main Bungalow at lower Meherabad where all who wish can pay their last respects to Aloba. By 2 p.m. all those gathered there will proceed together to the burial ground for the interment. Avatar Meher Baba ki Jai Meherazad Family
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_/4lobct 9?cturi’ts 7o i3ctba
(jtIi
itgtist 2002) 34 1916-13” 4
2’Iivedita Slianna, Jll4urnbai
ii Akbar Shapurzaman completed his whistle stop tour on the Earthly plane on August 13, 2002 at 1:15 pm in a hospital in Pune, India. Nicknamed ‘Electricity’ ‘General’ and ‘Snake killer’ by Meher Baba, he was otherwise known as Aloba. His journey began from a small sleepy village called Yezd, miles away from the capital Teheran, in Persia. The little man from Iran continues to serve Meher Baba as ordained in His divine plan, now from a different plane! After Baba dropped His body, Aloba became the watch guard at Meherazad. All visiting pilgrims are aware of the shrill whistle that he blew to tell pilgrims ‘Time to board the bus’ every visitor’s day at 12.30 pm. Aloba continued executing his duties as per Baba’s orders till he went to the hospital. In the past year he was aware that he would soon no longer be around, and he hinted to various people about it. Aloba lead the Iranian group that came during Amarthithi, 2002 to the graves of the men mandali and told them, ‘No matter what, I shall be buried next to Eruch’. Last May he wrote to a pilgrim from Delhi who always sent food and letters, ‘Now this is my last letter. Please tell everyone that I expect no replies, and don’t send anything for me to eat.’ When Aloba’s frail 86-year old hip broke and he had to be hospitalized, he went to Pune reluctantly. Ryan, one of the Westerners looking after him said, “He was tired and kept talking to himself But when it was all over he looked so radiant and liberated! His face did not look at all tired.” Another resident, Meherdokht, a fellow Iranian says, “The nurses in the hospital wondered where the energy came from. Aloba was asking for things and was still his energetic self! One day he spoke to Bhauji on the phone who was in another hospital ‘What are they giving you to eat? Here they don’t give me anything that I like’! It was quite a task to keep him down on his bed.’ He also requested of Meherdokht, “Please ask my niece if she can come here (to India).” Aloba lost contact with his father when his sister got married in Iran, and he never returned to the land of his birth. But he loved the country and before departing for Baba, he said “Iran will burn.” An Iranian in tears at his burial interpreted it as “yes Iran will burn with Baba’s Love, I think this is what Alobaji meant.” As Aloba was being lowered six feet down next to Eruch as he predicted, one felt he would wake up and whistle once again and say, ‘Time to go, board the bus’. As the rain showers came down (Baba’s blessings) the crowds ran to the shed and the Pilgrim Centre. Some of us still stood, waiting for the shrill whistle. After a long period of silence a loud whistle didjolt us off memories ofAloba. it was the train rushing across the Lower Meherabad railway tracks. Was it the train or was it Aloba? Maybe he was whistling us away saying, ‘go backbefore you catch a cold!’The whistle has now gone silent but memories will still linger on. .about this little man from Iran who came to India and left an indelible mark on our hearts.
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