Keeping the horrible heat aside, my next stop was at Safdarjung road - Indira Gandhi's residence. The place where Indira Priyadarshini 'Gandhi' spent her time in the 'service' of we Indians, and dedicated her whole life for the 'betterment' of the poor Indian society, has been converted in to a museum. It was a strange feeling, to be on the spot where a PM was assassinated by her own guards. It was, well, 'different'.
The museum had in display lot of newspaper reports of the incidents that happened to/because of her. Also in display were some of Rajiv Gandhi's things like the dress and shoes he wore for the last time in his life, before being assassinated in Sriperumbathur in my-own-Chennai. But there was one thing which caught my attention - the laptop he used! Believe me, we had a PM who used laptop in the late 80s! I've heard he was interested in gadgets. It was amazing to see.
Finally, it was the visit to Gandhi smriti that gave an unforgettable experience of my life time. It was the place where he was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, Narayan Apte and others. After visiting the dead Mughal kings, politicians who are alive but of no use, and PMs who died for the country during their 'service', I visited the man who lives even after his death. I'm telling about the original Gandhi - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Now that we have too many Gandhis 'ruling their India', the actual Gandhi who never ruled 'India by power' but 'Indians by his principles', is in such a pathetic state that he has to be introduced.
To be honest, I'm no fan of Gandhi. Nor do I hate him. He has always been a mystery to me. Before I read the first half of his autobiography, I thought he was almost a God. After I finished the first half, I realised he was just an ordinary human. In fact I started to hate him for no particular reasons. When I saw Richard Attenborough's 'Gandhi' and Kamal Hassan's 'Hey Ram', he gained some respect from me. After I finished reading 'Freedom at midnight' by Dominique la pierre and Larry Collins, I lost some more respect I had for him. So, it has always been like this.
Gandhi is never a static image in my mind.
When I said it was 'an unforgettable experience of my life time', I was not emotional or over-acting. It was truly such an experience. The taxi which had no AC, the afternoon heat, thirst and hunger - all these had taken me to a dreamy state.
After seeing some of Gandhi's belongings and a fantastic science museum which explains his life and principle in a very innovative way, I felt I was in January, 1948.
I walked along the path by which he used to walk to his daily prayers. The path had markings of his feet. On the sides were several paintings depicting incidents in his life. I entered the prayer area where he was assassinated.
I played in my mind, the scene of his assassination from the movies 'Gandhi' and 'Hey Ram'.
I could imagine Gandhi hurrying to his last prayer meeting for which he was unusually late.
I could imagine Nathuram Godse ready to fire. Was there any Saket Ram there? Or were there many Saket Rams?
It was a surrealistic moment.
I never heard the gun shot. It happened in silence.
When I came out I had only this in my mind - 'Did he really utter 'Hey Ram' before dying?'
--S--
Showing posts with label finland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label finland. Show all posts
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Delhi, Gandhi, and Me
Few months ago I had been to Delhi, on a one-day visit to apply for my Visa to Finland. It was summer in Delhi at that time, and when I landed there at around 8 PM, the sun was still not gone. I don't know Hindi much. And my little broken Hindi didn't work with those fast-speaking almost-Punjabi people of Delhi.
The next morning I reached Chanakyapuri (the area in Delhi where all countries have their embassies in India) so early that I was the first person in queue at the Finland embassy! I got a chance to roam around the Chanakyapuri area for about an hour while waiting for the embassy to open. Not-so-surprisingly, I saw a lot of people in front of the US embassy, but to my surprise every 2nd or 3rd person was a Singh! The crowd was getting bigger and bigger there. All other embassies were nearly empty. For some strange reasons, Afghanistan's embassy looked as frightening as Afghan itself! Perhaps it was that armed cop in military outfit standing behind sacks of mud-packs that gave the effect.
My Visa formalities completed within 15 minutes. I had the rest of the day to roam around New and Old Delhis. As I had been managing from the previous night with my broken Hindi and lots of unnecessary 'nahi hai's and 'ji haan's, I had gained enough confidence that I hired a taxi by myself explaining that I had whole day in Delhi and wanted to see a few places. Since I agreed to pay 1000 bucks for the whole trip, the owner of the taxi stand himself offered to show me around the city. To my shock, he happened to be a 70+ year old Singh ji, who spoke 98% Punjabi and only 2% Hindi, and, was almost deaf! :-( It was like watching 'Jodha Akbar' - I thought i was watching a Hindi movie, but I hardly recognized any word they spoke on screen.
So, there began my exploration of my capital city.
My intentions were clear. I wanted to see only the historical sights. Not shopping malls. Not markets. And definitely not temples.
My first stop was at Qutb minar. Next was Humayun Tomb, and then Teen moorthy bhavan. I hardly saw any people in those places except, of course, some lovers, like in any other historical/archeological site in India. Perhaps they were 'planning' to 'create' their 'history' in the places which are history now.
Then came India gate, and then the very important - Rashtrapathy Bhavan. It wasn't as exciting as i had imagined it to be. Reason could be because it is 'Rashtrapathni bhavan' now. May be if Abdul Kalam had continued there, I would have felt goose-bumps!
I had a glimpse of several political addresses. 24 Akbar road, 10 Janpath, Sitting-ministers' residences (Dayanidhi Maran - to name a prominent one) , residences of ex-ministers who are still sitting (Mani shankar Aiyar) for god-knows-why?! I wondered what the others were doing that hot summer afternoon.
Coming to think of it, the heat was unbearable. It was summer at its peak in Delhi. Though I was happy seeing all historical sites, I struggled a lot to manage the heat. An unnecessary stop at the Lotus temple worsened things. I walked on bare-foot on the shining hot tiles floor and roasted my feet. It was horrible.
--S--
(To be contd..)
The next morning I reached Chanakyapuri (the area in Delhi where all countries have their embassies in India) so early that I was the first person in queue at the Finland embassy! I got a chance to roam around the Chanakyapuri area for about an hour while waiting for the embassy to open. Not-so-surprisingly, I saw a lot of people in front of the US embassy, but to my surprise every 2nd or 3rd person was a Singh! The crowd was getting bigger and bigger there. All other embassies were nearly empty. For some strange reasons, Afghanistan's embassy looked as frightening as Afghan itself! Perhaps it was that armed cop in military outfit standing behind sacks of mud-packs that gave the effect.
My Visa formalities completed within 15 minutes. I had the rest of the day to roam around New and Old Delhis. As I had been managing from the previous night with my broken Hindi and lots of unnecessary 'nahi hai's and 'ji haan's, I had gained enough confidence that I hired a taxi by myself explaining that I had whole day in Delhi and wanted to see a few places. Since I agreed to pay 1000 bucks for the whole trip, the owner of the taxi stand himself offered to show me around the city. To my shock, he happened to be a 70+ year old Singh ji, who spoke 98% Punjabi and only 2% Hindi, and, was almost deaf! :-( It was like watching 'Jodha Akbar' - I thought i was watching a Hindi movie, but I hardly recognized any word they spoke on screen.
So, there began my exploration of my capital city.
My intentions were clear. I wanted to see only the historical sights. Not shopping malls. Not markets. And definitely not temples.
My first stop was at Qutb minar. Next was Humayun Tomb, and then Teen moorthy bhavan. I hardly saw any people in those places except, of course, some lovers, like in any other historical/archeological site in India. Perhaps they were 'planning' to 'create' their 'history' in the places which are history now.
Then came India gate, and then the very important - Rashtrapathy Bhavan. It wasn't as exciting as i had imagined it to be. Reason could be because it is 'Rashtrapathni bhavan' now. May be if Abdul Kalam had continued there, I would have felt goose-bumps!
I had a glimpse of several political addresses. 24 Akbar road, 10 Janpath, Sitting-ministers' residences (Dayanidhi Maran - to name a prominent one) , residences of ex-ministers who are still sitting (Mani shankar Aiyar) for god-knows-why?! I wondered what the others were doing that hot summer afternoon.
Coming to think of it, the heat was unbearable. It was summer at its peak in Delhi. Though I was happy seeing all historical sites, I struggled a lot to manage the heat. An unnecessary stop at the Lotus temple worsened things. I walked on bare-foot on the shining hot tiles floor and roasted my feet. It was horrible.
--S--
(To be contd..)
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