like all Gandhi Jayantis, this time too was a public holiday I was looking forward to: obviously for selfish reasons! This time my holiday meant leaving one day earlier to Mumbai after arriving to Pune only on Tuesday. Oh for more 3-day weeks! Like all holiday mornings I woke up at my sweet time, went through the day without much fanfare and excitement coming my way and hoped for a fitting end to it. That's when my sister tells me one of the million movie channels we have on our Set Top Box is screening Richard Attenborough's Gandhi. (I always found that odd in a paranoid sense: with the British having taken away most of our Gold and Jewels, looks like they took away our Mahatma too!) I decided to spend some time watching the movie once again and felt that this way I will pay my homage to the great soul!
Gandhi: The Movie was something I remember watching as a kid at the creche I went to. Doordarshan which was our source of 'Tube Salvation' would have the afternoon slot fixed for this movie and all of us kids at Aunt Mable's place would watch it with great interest. Back then it was just that amazing feeling to watch the history textbook come alive with the actors, props, locations, sets, costumes & lighting. A scene I can never forget is the one in which Gandhi (Ben Kingsley) is very sick from his fasting and this rugged Hindu man (Om Puri) comes up to his bedside with a sense desperation written all over his face. He asks him what must he do to absolve himself of his sin of killing a Muslim boy to avenge the death of his child. To this Gandhi replied, "Adopt a boy and raise him as your own son, but in the Muslim Faith!" That scene will never cease to amaze me for the sheer simplicity of the man's thoughts and the power those thoughts had and still have today.
When the story is of a man as towering as Gandhi, you will never run out of moments that inspire you. This time it was the time when he was in South Africa and walking on the street along with a Catholic priest when they are mocked and intimidated by local white boys. It is at that moment he says,"I think Christ meant it literally when he says 'If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer him the other cheek.' It is not a show of cowardice but a display of great courage to stand in the face of oppression." That thought just blew me away. How often have I run away from a circumstance thinking that it was too tough to handle without violence. But the truth is that the situation was only tough (rather impossible) to handle without courage. Our perception of courage is very different from Gandhi's. I for one, could never see courage associated with someone being beaten and flogged despite being a catholic and fully knowing the Passion of Jesus. Sure it takes guts to raise a hand and strike someone stronger than you but it takes far greater courage to just stand and be beaten in body but not in your spirit and ideology. Quoting Gandhi's lines, "They will imprison me, beat me, torture me and might even kill me. Then they will have my dead body, not my Obedience!"
It is rare to see such defiance in this day and age. We have termed such valour as 'passive resistance' and let it get lost in the annals of history. I hear analysts and historians comment on News Channels that Gandhi's Philosophies cannot be practised against terrorism. However, I think that we don't have that degree of courage that is requisite for fighting this evil. I pray though that we do find it one day for our sake, for the sake of peace, for the sake of humanity!
Gandhi: The Movie was something I remember watching as a kid at the creche I went to. Doordarshan which was our source of 'Tube Salvation' would have the afternoon slot fixed for this movie and all of us kids at Aunt Mable's place would watch it with great interest. Back then it was just that amazing feeling to watch the history textbook come alive with the actors, props, locations, sets, costumes & lighting. A scene I can never forget is the one in which Gandhi (Ben Kingsley) is very sick from his fasting and this rugged Hindu man (Om Puri) comes up to his bedside with a sense desperation written all over his face. He asks him what must he do to absolve himself of his sin of killing a Muslim boy to avenge the death of his child. To this Gandhi replied, "Adopt a boy and raise him as your own son, but in the Muslim Faith!" That scene will never cease to amaze me for the sheer simplicity of the man's thoughts and the power those thoughts had and still have today.
When the story is of a man as towering as Gandhi, you will never run out of moments that inspire you. This time it was the time when he was in South Africa and walking on the street along with a Catholic priest when they are mocked and intimidated by local white boys. It is at that moment he says,"I think Christ meant it literally when he says 'If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer him the other cheek.' It is not a show of cowardice but a display of great courage to stand in the face of oppression." That thought just blew me away. How often have I run away from a circumstance thinking that it was too tough to handle without violence. But the truth is that the situation was only tough (rather impossible) to handle without courage. Our perception of courage is very different from Gandhi's. I for one, could never see courage associated with someone being beaten and flogged despite being a catholic and fully knowing the Passion of Jesus. Sure it takes guts to raise a hand and strike someone stronger than you but it takes far greater courage to just stand and be beaten in body but not in your spirit and ideology. Quoting Gandhi's lines, "They will imprison me, beat me, torture me and might even kill me. Then they will have my dead body, not my Obedience!"
It is rare to see such defiance in this day and age. We have termed such valour as 'passive resistance' and let it get lost in the annals of history. I hear analysts and historians comment on News Channels that Gandhi's Philosophies cannot be practised against terrorism. However, I think that we don't have that degree of courage that is requisite for fighting this evil. I pray though that we do find it one day for our sake, for the sake of peace, for the sake of humanity!
