BAAPU.

What I know about Gandhiji is from teachers,readings and the movies. I learned about his simplicity in my school days. A story of the small pencil gifted by a school girl was inspiring, and it shows his humility and respect to small things in life.Gandhi's' three monkeys is an inspiration. I was a child when I stumbled upon the books written on Gandhi in my house, which was kept in a old trunk box. The books were in Tamil. My father was a keen reader of his writings. Gandhi and Brahamacharya was a title which I didn’t understood in my childhood .His dress, walk, non-violence all influenced me.

I later as a teacher taught Gandhism as a lesson in high school. This is the turning point where I delved into his psyche. Teaching it repeatedly for fifteen years gave me an opportunity to understand him. The essence is ‘He practiced what he preached’.Some of his ideas are not practicable even though we cannot ignore the genius in him. He borrowed from many sources and tried to practice those moral principles which made him the Mahatma.

Later I read a book called Gandhian Principles,a small but was compiled topic wise. When I was in college, in the library I saw a long set of about twenty or more volumes in Gandhian Thoughts in light blue coloured cloth binding..not touched by anyone…the dust..Cobwebs proved it. I didn’t like the large volumes then. I read his Autobiography My Experiments with Truth. I cannot write about it here, read it and find what Gandhi is all about. If you don’t read it now you will never! There are certain things in life which we may miss if we don’t go through it now. I learned more about this man through the eyes of Attenborough .

Screenage generation can have a taste of Gandhi in Lage Raho Munnabhai,but his ideas are not as simple as it was portrayed.Satyagraha is a tool for the strong,not for the weak minded.