Few months back I was reading Guy De Maupassant, a consummate French writer. He is such a natural writer that sentences just streamed out, it seems with not much effort. He brings brilliance out of ordinary, some places he reminds you of Edgar Alan Poe. I was reading this story Beside a Dead Man, it was about a man sitting vigil for philosopher Schopenhauer and an incident, now this story was stuck in my head and I ended up writing Gandhi was not killed few days back. Need to add here the incident of being invited to hotel is based on a true happening. When I was in first year of college we four or five guys used to go to kovalam beach quite regularly, once we were sitting around an elderly foreigner invited us to his room for beer!.This story is of course dedicated to sacred memory of Mahatma Gandhi. He was a great man. But if I were alive in 1920s and 30s I would have definitely preferred shanti niketan over sevagram (and yes only for few months…I gather I have a problem sticking around a place for too long!!), Tagore was an amazing man and I found the contradictions between him and Gandhi in his favor. But Gandhiji had immense hold over people and he understood human nature, society and value of non violence- at its practical and spiritual level. It is a mistake to compare people, it is an ugly venture. Comfort of retrospect makes it worst.
Care is also taken in this story not to put words on Gandhi that is not his.
One of the worst earthquake in Haiti
