Where there is Gandhi, there is Money!!!

Mahatma Gandhi’s memorabilia recently went under the hammer at the Antiquorum Auctioneers in New York after hours of high drama.

Vijay Mallya got home Lot 364, featuring effects of Mahatma Gandhi, after frenzied bidding. He made a bid of $ 1.8 million, for a total cost of $2.1 million including the buyer's premium.

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The limited-edition pen, priced at £14,400, has an 18-carat solid gold, rhodium-plated nib and “a saffron-colored mandarin garnet” on the clip. The pen is also engraved with Gandhi’s image.

Dilip R. Doshi, chairman of Entrack, Montblanc’s distributor in India, has an opinion that they are creating a thing of simplicity and beauty that will last for centuries.

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A man has not only collected stamps of 130 countries bearing Gandhiji’s image on them, but also many other interesting tokens which have connections with the father of the nation. As a philatelist, he has an eye for detail; has postage stamp cancellations which bear the post office seal.

Retired botany prof Venkatesh S Yalvigi has 40 files of memorabilia on the father of the nation.

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Visuals of Gandhi kept appearing to this not-so-innocent man. All the questions that were unanswered in his brains were answered by the great man himself.

Sanjay Dutt aka MunnaBhai was terribly obsessed and hence started having ‘chemical-locha’ as termed by him in the movie ‘Lagey Raho Munnabhai’

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I am no ‘King-of-good-times’ Vijay Mallya or ‘Gujarat born’ Dilip Doshi, not even ‘Museum/Publicity Aspirant’ Yalvigi or ‘TADA culprit’ Dutt but a common girl who knows a little too much about the great man.

Like......

• Full name ‘Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’.

• Born in ‘Porbandar Gujarat’.

• Parents ‘Karamchand’ and ‘Putlibai’.

• He married 14 year ‘Kasturbai’ when he was 13.

• He quoted "As we didn't know much about marriage, for us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating sweets and playing with relatives." Although unaware of what marriage was he became father at the age of 15.

• His home was called ‘Sabarmati Aashram’.

• He went to London to study ‘Law’.

• He was thrown away from train in ‘South Africa’.

• He preached ‘Non-Cooperation’.

• He started ‘Salt Satyagraha’ and marched till ‘Dandi’.

• He cleaned his ‘toilet’ on his own.

• He began the ‘Quit India Movement’.

• He practiced ‘Ahimsa’.

• He was assassinated by ‘Nathuram Godse’.

• He is ‘Father of our Nation’.



Not just me but every kid in India will know 50% of the above listed information. How you may ask?

Simple its courtesy:

Lessons in Language textbooks (Kannada, English, Hindi and Sanskrit) from 3rd to 2nd PUC.

History chapters.

Some say that Oct 2nd is just an observed holiday where people garland his photo, enjoy the day off and not remember him for the next 364 days. But I guess that’s better than commercialism in the name of ‘M.K. Gandhi’.

I have done my part this day; scripted my views on ‘Gandhian Era’, listed all the ‘to-do’ plans for the long weekend and started executing them one by one, boycotted non-vegetarian for a day and vowed not to utter a lie (ahem) at least on this day.

Before I am off to enjoy the holiday, let me tell you that I stay in ‘Ahimsa Marga’; not just for a day but all throughout.