This time when I went back home to Ahmdabad, I chanced to visit “Gandhi Ashram” that is located on the bank of river Sabarmati in A’bad. Hold your horses, before you jump to any conclusion…..No…I repeat No ..i am not a fan of “The father of the nation” nor of his ideology, “Ahimsa” what bull crap. In fact I thank “Mr Godse” for what he did from the bottom of my heart. But being a history buff somehow my feet automatically took me to the said place.
First impression was as I had expected; a serene and quite place with lot of trees providing shade to visitors in this hot Indian summer. I started my visit with a small museum dedicated to the man, displaying his works, old photographs, letters etc.
Then I moved on to the hut where he had stayed , his belongings which were almost non existent, no wonder people in states auction his belongings as they are surely missing from the place where it should have been. We only have our government to thank for this.
Also saw the famous seat, table and charkha that we use to see in doordarshan when we were kids.
It was after visiting the hut that something’s kicked in and some things that I saw that made my mood bitter and have made me share some of my thoughts. I am devil to the core, descendent of devil himself but I have certain ethics, I respect a place that has historical significance, I respect a person who has historical significance in this case the person who is given the status of father of our nation which is a big deal. The youth today might not agree with his beliefs but in the by gone era their were people ready to take a bullet for him and yes whatever ways he might employed he was a freedom fighter , he was a leader, he did play his part in the freedom struggle.
Now if you’re wondering why I am being so vocal about the chap is for the following reason. The sheer disrespect, lack of common sense and vulgarity displayed by my fellow countrymen present in the ashram just pissed me off. For starters people had made this place of such historical significance where pre independence dignitaries from all over the world came to meet Mr Mohandas K. Gandhi, where big decisions in regard to freedom struggle were taken into a “fucking” picnic spot. Excuse me folks, but I do not think this is a place where parents should come with their children to play ball and laugh and be merry. It is not a public park. This place is a part of our history, a symbol of our nation and you are only mocking this symbol by this crude and callow behavior.
I would not have minded had this been a singular incident, but there was more to follow. There was a sitting statue of the Gandhi in the middle of the park and people were getting their pictures clicked along with it. Perfectly fine, no issues but at least don’t pose by sitting on his head which was precisely the case with one kid and his father who had equal amount of brain as his kid was merrily clicking the picture. I mean seriously in Cartman’s words WTF. You don’t sit on someone’s head and in this case not on the head of a person of this magnitude. The bald head may look a tempting place to sit but its not, at least the parents should understand that much.
Just when I thought that this was the end of my horrendous experience, my excessively broad spectrum of vision made me spot two love birds pecking, and I don’t mean birds.
Ok, I am a very open mined guy and this necking is completely expected behavior according to me even in public place but for fuck’s sake spare this place. I am positive that the said couple would not have come here to see the place but to sit in their corner and enjoy their youth. This must be a regular meeting place of many more like them who would be flocking the ashram to have their private corner. Once again I have to say WTF man.
The above disturbing seen actually made me think that do we Indians give a “rat’s ass” about our past. Their were foreigners who had come to see the ashram and were behaving in quite a dignified manner and showed genuine interest in their surroundings but we the “people of India” had once again proved that we don’t care about our heritage. With couples engraving their name on buildings of historical significance. With youths playing football in this tranquil place and urinating in the open the list of our misdoings is endless.
All this makes you think, have we failed as a nation to teach our kids or even adults for that matter to respect all that that belongs to us our past, our culture, our heritage, our history. Why do Indians respect everyone except themselves. We are the folks who make spit on the walls of “Takshila” or”Nalanda” but who will marvel at the sight of “Harvard or Yale”. So the question is do we suffer from inferiority complex and don’t appreciate our own things when the whole world does. Well, I guess so!
