SoCultures October 2018
S Oh! But you are also called Bapu?
M Ha!Ha!Ha! Oh Yes, I actually keep forgetting my real name…but I am
humbled by such great honours. I am so thankful to all. Dhanyawaad!
S No, it’s your politeness. I think it’s nothing considering your selfless services
for nation, for the entire world and your great wisdom. So, the titles became
sobriquets to be used by near and dear ones– Mahatma! And Bapu! (Father of the
Nation).
S(chuckles) I know your real names…Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi…I think
whole world knows about it.
M Oh…Bapu! Well…It is a thought. I think Subhas Chandra Bose was the first to
call me;the Father of India (seems amused). Though people gossip about the
differences between the two of us, only differences of opinion we had, was on
what is the best for India. We both wished best for the country.
Early years
S Let’s go back to the childhood…those years of growing up..
M (seems lost in the old memories)…it’s so nostalgic to remember …it was a
small, white-washed house in Porbandar, on the coast of Kathiawad in western
India, where I was born on October 2, 1869. I remember my parents very fondly,
Karamchand Gandhi and Putlibai. I also remember that when I was small, I was
dark and small and looked no different from the millions of other children born in
India.
S Yet, this was no ordinary child. He was to fight and overcome a great empire
that too without taking to arms, to set his country free.
S
Porbandar?
M Porbandar is an old sea-port, coastal city in Gujarat, India overlooked by the
distant Barda Hills. Even in ancient days ships from far off lands went there to
trade.
S And your family?
140 | P a g e