This Gandhi Jayanti, for the first time means something to me apart from a holiday. While my reading of 'Freedom at Midnight' is coming to an end, it has given me an insight into the life of the man whom i henceforth was neutral about. To be truthful, i always related much more to the ideologies and methodologies of revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh and the brave Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. To Gandhi, i did associate some negative thoughts like shrewdness, manipulation, pretention and double face. For most people, this shouldn't be an unusual revelation since such comments are often heard. But i realize there is more depth and resolve in the ideology and actions of Gandhi than we were ever willing to explore. It seems the actual Gandhi is too idealistic for us to believe in the context of our world and so we internalize the more believable allegations, while associating the 2 words - truth and non-violence in a very shallow and hollow manner.
Evoked by this book and also the repeated references given to the film Gandhi in our communications or strategy lectures, i did watch the film too. As a child, the film was a boring obstruction to us being able to enjoy anything on Doordarshan, the only known TV channels to us, on our 2nd October holiday. But finally, it made sense to me.. to use a cliche.. better late than never. Though i now realize it is impossible to capture the life of this man in a 3-hour movie, nevertheless, for a film it is very well made and intruiging indeed. I wonder why nobody has thought of making a tele-series on Gandhi. I am sure it can be made interesting enough.
However, i have to end this by referring to a quote i found while browsing for sayings by and about Gandhi on wikiquote:
A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back -- but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you.
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