Gandhi---He made me cry!

[Gopal Mishra]

Hi friends,

I have joined this community today itself. Please accept my best wishes.
I am from India and I work with HCL Technologies, Chennai.

Just want to share a small incident which made me cry:

On 2^nd Oct 2010 I was watching "Gandhi", the movie ,on
Sony Pix. Hope all of you have seen this Oscar winning movie. If not, you are
missing something great.

The scene goes like this," Post partition, riots are at its peak in
Calcutta. Hindus and Muslims are thirsty for each other’s blood..Nothing seems to
work in the direction of stopping the massacre, the city is on fire. It is

then when Mahatma comes to the city and stays at a Muslim friend's house.

He requests for peace, even then people remain deaf to his appeals and continue the carnage. He then uses a powerful weapon from his armory. He declares, “FAST UNTO DEATH”. After a few days, his magic works and people
start receding. Hoards of people come and throw their weapons in front of him. Amongst
them was a Hindu rioter who comes and throws a piece of bread (roti)
at him and instructs him to eat.

“I don’t want to bear the blame of your death, eat it”, says the rioter.

Then all of a sudden he starts crying and says,” I will go to hell, when I die”.

Gandhi politely asks, “Why?”

“I killed an eight year old Muslim boy “, comes the reply.

“Why did you kill him?”,asks Gandhi.

“Because they killed my innocent son.”, says the rioter.

Gandhiji thinks for a while and says.” I have a way out for you”

The rioter looks at him with astonishment.

“Find a boy of similar age who has lost his parents, and bring him up as if he is your own child.

But just make one thing sure that the boy is a Muslim and is brought up as one” concludes Gandhi.

This scene made me cry!

Blessed are we that a man like him was born on this planet. But unfortunately, he is being forgotten in his own land. Seeing his neglect on 2^nd October I wrote an
article “We can afford to forget Gandhi but not his message!” on my blog.

Gandhiji's teachings are perpetual and I am sure his teachings will remain relevant till eternity.

Love,

Gopal

[Shara Lili Esbenshade]

Dear Gopal,

 

Thank you for sharing about this scene. It has moved me to watch the film again. I value sharing stories such as this, for it is such a concrete and clear way to learn the message of love and what it means in action. Thank you also for your wonderful work translating the powerful speeches of Vivekananda, Nehru, and King.

 

With appreciation,

Shara