Here are some little known facts about October 2 birthday boy, Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi.* As a young man, thanks to his teacher, he first learnt to speak English with an Irish accent.
* He had a set of false teeth, which he carried in a fold of his loin cloth, using them only when he ate.
* He was silent one day every week.
* He made huge amounts of money in South Africa working as a pacifist debt collector.
* His pacifism was passed down by the ancient gurus of India, right? Well actually, he was greatly inspired by an American, Henry David Thoreau. Read this, and tell me it ain't so. Gandhi quote: "I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers."
3 comments:
Gandhi's ancestral home was the state of Gujarat in India, home also of his main 'ashram'.
That state is now lead by Narendra Modi, the most fearsome authoritarian leader to emerge in modern India - shown to have orchestrated brutal massacres, and bragging of rule with an 'iron fist' - touted as a possible future Indian Prime Minister.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra_Modi
In the land of Gandhi. A coincidence?
Hiding the false teeth in the loincloth enabled him to relate (jokingly) that his passivism often resulted in his teeth being knocked so far down his throat that he could retrieve them from his nether regions.
master
Post a Comment