Mahatma Gandhi

It has been 141 years since Mahatma Gandhi was born. It is true that changing ideals have diminished the great Indian's effect on our daily lives. But he remains and perhaps will forever remain a symbol that defines this land. Modest to a fault, Gandhiji would not have liked being idolised as a god or his every word being slavishly obeyed by a nation of sycophants without any understanding or logic.
He simply suggested a few ideas and if you also thought they were good ideas, he only asked that you join him, in however simple a manner, in trying to make those ideas a reality. Somehow he manages to ask us all to join him even to this day.
Mahatma remains the conscience of the nation. We can only hope that, like all consciences, his voice might get muffled most of the times but obeyed when it really matters.
Here are a few glimpses of his presence in our lives.


Sculptor Debanjan Roy poses next to one of his creations of Indian independence icon Mahatma Gandhi at the L&P Hutheesing Visual Art Center in Ahmedabad on September 25, 2010.


The 'Statue of Hope', paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi in downtown Pietermaritzburg on June 14, 2010.

Gandhi was forced off a train in Pietermaritzburg in 1893 in a racially-motivated incident, which later on in life helped shaped his belief in his non-violent resistance against discrimination.



School students dressed as Mahatma Gandhi take part in a function on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti in Siliguri on Friday, October 1, 2010



We only know him as 'bapu', the saviour of the nation, the frail old man in his khadi clothes and holding a walking stick. But in his youth he was quite a dashing young man. If you take a look at the photo you will look into the face that the world saw when he first began his fight for equality in South Africa.
The face, though familiar, seems strangely out of place in India where he remains the smiling grandfather.