THOSE WERE the days, in which the high spirited person Mahatma Gandhi got us freedom and gave away his life. There were times when he went on a month long fast to make people committed to non-violence in the backdrop of the Chouri Choura incident in the ending stages of the non-cooperation movement.
There’s a lot more to say about him, what all he did and what all his greatness is all about. We call him by different names linked to the Almighty, free spirit, high spirit etc. We gave him the position of the 'Father of the Nation'. After his soul left us free to breathe on this land, we did everything we could to sympathise with ourselves thinking he would be feeling proud.
We did everything from hanging his photograph in government offices to having his image on the Indian currency, from observing October 2, as a national holiday to having his statues in public places. We did all we thought is necessary to make his soul happy, in our terms.
Gandhiji is one of the most enlightened souls ever to be born in India. He is the man behind this free air we are breathing, he got us what we now call unity and he did everything to save this Mother India.
And what we did to keep his memory is just what money could do. Does anyone actually realise if Gandhiji would be happy with his statue standing all alone in public parks? Is this what all he wanted from us?
Our Father of Nation was so down to earth that he just had eye glasses, sandals, a pocket watch, a plate and a bowl. This was all that he had. He did not believe in materialism and commercialisation.
“The watch, the bowl and the plate were given by Gandhi to his grandniece Abha Gandhi while he was still alive. She, in turn, willed it to her daughter Gita Mehta," said Michelle Halpern, the public relations and marketing manager for Antiquorum, in an interview in The Washington Post. But she declined to reveal any of the sellers' names.
There is nothing wrong in saying that we were not capable of taking care of his belongings. We were so involved in celebrating our freedom that we forgot to take care of the belongings of the departed soul. We could just not keep his belongings safe in our country. Plus we could not even find those later or more precisely, we had no time to get into this business in the first place.
But then, one fine day, we Indians get news regarding the auction of Gandhi's belongings in New York. People who called themselves Indians then ran for Bapu’s belongings when Indians’ general concern for their heritage came under a question mark.
There were many Indians who went for the auction and were not successful in getting the memorabilia but the liquor baron,Vijay Mallya took a leap forward to get our belongings back to us.
This whole episode, according to me, is a matter of shame for us as it shows that we could not take care of our national property. But as we study history to review our past and to learn from the mistakes already done, time always gives us a chance to mend our mistakes and from now on, we can expect Mallya to take proper care of our national pride.
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