Priya Nath studied hard the entire winter while Shri Nathji and Mateshwari did everything to make him comfortable and rarely let him know of the difficulties they were facing in the severe cold of the winter–when water was freezing in the taps, and there was not a ray of sunshine in Shri Nathji’s bedroom, where heating arrangements were inadequate and getting out of bed to go to the bathroom was a great torment, and the bathroom itself had primitive facilities.
Mateshwari was still weak and had joint pains that were aggravated by the winter. She also felt very cold because of her diabetes which was poorly controlled most of the time.
The right arm of Shri Nathji was never fully healed. There was only one servant with them. The devotees never came to Mussoorie in the winter months. The verandah of Savitri Nivas would only resound with the thrill of their bhajans in the warm month of June.
During that particular winter there was the loyal Shri Shyam Lal who had come to Savitri Nivas, and who would sit in the verandah outside the dining room, exhorting Priya Nath to go to sleep and not to study too hard in the chilly winter nights.
“Huzoor der ho gayi hai! Thhak jaayenge! Ab so jaayen!” Shyam Lal’s affectionate voice would ring out.