MOGANDHIKA is a twenty five year old woman, from a place called PURAM. Her mother taught History and Sociology in college. Mogandhika's mother was a great admirer of Mahatma Gandhi, that she named her daughter after Gandhi -MOhandas- KAramchand-GANDHI. Mogandhika was a curious young woman. She grew up wondering, why there was so much symbolism attached to the name and ideas of Gandhi in India.
It was October 2nd, mogandhika returned home after a long day. She had attended various programs on Gandhi's birth anniversary with her mother. Late in the night as she tries to sleep, mogandhika could not stop thinking about all the conversations and speeches she heard that day about Gandhi.
As she wakes up next morning, mogandhika finds herself sitting in an empty Railway station, next to an old fragile man, who was none other than GANDHI himself!
In a parallel world, where Mogandhika finds herself all alone with the man she was always fascinated about, strikes a conversation with Gandhi.
MOGANDHIKA Bappu! How does it feel to visit the railway station named after you? (MG railway st) And, which train are you waiting for?
Well I thought Given your status in India, 'mahatma' and all that, its amusing how you still travel by train!
GANDHI Dear Mogandhi, as it was my birthday, my country men were busy praising me. And I who came here as part of Touring New India, failed to arrange a train ticket. Then the lockdown happened.
So I am stuck.
And Your amusement about the MAHATMA travelling by train..
But, didn't I discover INDIA through trains..?
MOGANDHIKA OH, the trains and Gandhi!
How can one forget that historic incident, where you were discriminated and thrown out of a running train in South Africa. And also, how you landed up in Champarna village in Bihar, after a gentleman asked you to visit the distressed farmers, as you were touring India by train in early 1920's.
Huh, I wonder what does travelling on train in today's India feels like. Quiet a Ride, isn't it?
GANDHI Speaking of my experience with trains, I travelled with group of Migrant workers yesterday, they were going back home as there was lockdown. These men were distressed and hungry. They were wondering how quick their lives were pushed against the wall with pandemic. I even heard a young man wanting to kill himself by jumping into the railway tracks, he was sobbing about his empty pocket!
Then I saw a group of kind men distributing food and money to these migrant laborers, as these men and women were hustling and rushing to get the money, I saw the image of myself on currency notes, and the site of it, shook the very core of my conscience.
MOGANDHIKA Bappu, the scene that your talking about;
Did it sadden you to see, how your countrymen have simply reduced you to currency notes?
I wonder, if you ever got to smile again, like the one on the currency notes!
The philosophy behind having your picture on currency notes is quiet Ironic, isn't it bappu?
GANDHI I remember the trains of death we dealt with in Partition. One train up with dead bodies, one train down with religious Identities. And what I saw here is no different, then the British Raj and today a sovereign government were still complaining more about-
How they die than why they die!
And speaking of my image on currency notes, It only reminded me about the three Monkeys I always spoke of, and I would add a fourth monkey, which stands to ignores the other three monkeys!
MOGANDHIKA Speaking of IGNORANCE, Bappu did You notice in today's India, You are a tool for promotion, using and abusing Gandhi is a norm here.
During freedom struggle you inspired young men and women to let off their self-serving attitude and fight for the greater cause.
And now, let me open your eyes to how your country men perceive your life and ideas in today's India.
GANDHI I saw a little boy selling my autobiography -my experiments with truth at railway platform, it got me thinking who were interested in truth?
MOGANDHIKA But bappu, it is a POST TRUTH world!
The man who shot at you, is hailed as PATRIOT these days!
Gandhi was overambitious, they even call you a FRAUD!
'Gandhi was the reason for partition' is a very popular belief.
You are the reason for everything, that is wrong with this country.
Ever since your left, many historians and scholars have written extensively about you. But today in the times of Propaganda and extreme polarization, the young, have largely formed their opinions based on fake news and YouTube!
I could even teach you how to find yourself on Internet!
Those days men and women read the Great HIND SWARAJ, where you famously wrote-
“A man, while he is dreaming, believes in his dream; he is undeceived only when he is awakened from his slumber. In reality, there are as many religions as there are individuals. We measure the universe by our own miserable foot-rule".
Today-
The LEFT parties call you Anti-AMBEDKAR;
The RIGHT parties call you MUSLIM appeaser;
MAHATMA, WILL THE REAL GANDHI EVER STAND UP?
GANDHI (takes a deep breath)
Quite an eye-opening description Mogandhi.
I heard of this new thing called INTERNET, well if Internet was discovered those days, I might have ran a twitter campaign for independence (laughs) and today freedom struggle could be summed up into hashtags!
And, What do I say of what my countrymen think of me?
Defending myself is similar to that of the child at the station, calling on the dead mother to wake up long after its life has been ceased.
And it was never Gandhi versus Ambedkar;
We both boarded the same train, but to get down at different stations.
The great Ambedkar called UNTOUCHABILITY A CRIME;
And I said, UNTOUCHABILITY IS A SIN.
MOGANDHIKA I was ten years old when I read Your TALISMAN, and since then I have always struggled to identify this world in the eyes of your Talisman.
You said, the sight of a poorest and weakest man by itself should lead to the fight for life and Dignity, it must pave the path for SWARAJ.
But Bappu, looking at the state of affairs in my country today, I not only fail to restore life of the weakest and poorest, but also find the SELF lost in this chaotic world, where the sense of cruelty and misery induced upon one another is never ending!
GANDHI They have forgotten my talisman. I won’t repeat it. Even I have forgotten it. I begin by saying- when ever your in doubt... But today,
As I strolled with thousands of laborer's, walking back home by foot;
As I watch todays Political leaders drowning in the well of wickedness and impurity;
As I witness the suffering and pain induced upon fellow humans;
I'm only reminded of the great poet Tagore and take strength from his words, when he wrote -
Into the ever-widening thought and action,
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake...
MOGANDHIKA Mohandas ji, please Stop Selling us HOPE!
The ultra Utopian World that you promised would come, if we worked together has turned out be the biggest lie of this century!
The great SWARAJ that you fought for all your life, is no where to be seen.
Don't even get me started on AHIMSA!
Dear mahatma, Why do you champion for the kind of World and humanity that will never arrive?
GANDHI smiled, stood up and walked towards the station gate;
Before leaving, he looked at MOGANDHIKA, a young woman full of curiosity, rightly or wrongly named after him.
He spoke in a calming voice and said-
"We forget that what gave words the weight they have today, is the very past against which we were rebelling. We also forget that we'll always need words whose meaning is shaky and uncertain"
As Mogandhika saw mahatma walking away..
she felt NOSTALGIC for a country which doesn't yet exist on a map.
Something in him moved her, as if he healed her wounds, by talking about his own.
The dream was over. Mogandhika woke up to a real world. she was gazing at a Gandhi statue, put up at the corner of her street, only to see the greatest man of our century with all his flaws and virtue, smiling with a mix of Irony and aspiration.
Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.- Albert Einstein on GANDHI
THE IDEA OF GANDHI LIVES ON..