Letter to Gandhi

Dear Bapu,

Happy Birthday!

I hope you are fine in your abode. With all the things that you have done on earth, I am sure the Gods must be taking special care of you.

I no longer sing patriotic songs and speak of your contribution to country (or debate it) today, as I am no longer in school. Sometimes I feel that this sentiment of jingoism is draining out of me with age, but I do not lament it because it makes me feel more customary with everyone else.

However, to celebrate your birthday and my flavor I’ll be baking a cake today in your memory. It’ll be, of course, a part of my Pre-Marriage Training (PMT, as my mom calls it) and Papa specially insists on making delicious deserts so that I keep my spouse happy (not that I am marrying soon). This is one difference in our ages, Bapu. You got married at a very early age while I’ll wait for some more time. Some will call this progress, some deterioration; for me it is change – evolution. But then, a lot of changes have taken place since your departure.

I asked Papa if we could use cream made out of a goat’s milk, but he said that it would be a gigantic task to get goat’s milk. So I am using the usual buffalo one, but I hope you are getting goat’s milk wherever you are. By the way, did someone warn you against the synthetic milk – it is adulterated, so please don’t use it. You’ll be wondering, obviously, why people are selling adulterated milk. The answer lies in their voracity, their hastened attempt to escape paucity. The mammoth task of salvaging millions of Indians from hunger and dearth is still unaccomplished.

If you are wondering what your successors in congress (and elsewhere) did in last 60 years, let me tell you, it was not easy for them to do all the hard work while there were paintings of you to be hung in office across the nation. I mean, how could they do all the work themselves, after all there were statues of you to be inaugurated, roads to be named after you and yes, the most important – printing you on every note in country’s economy. But you must not feel let down, there’s work going on in the offices – lots of money with you splashed on it changes lots of hands in offices right under your paintings. Some people showed a lot of vision – started institutions, organizations which is earning us good name and fame. But it is only in power that they can afford to accomplish their vision for the country, so most of their time is spent in exchanging blows for this power.

Have you heard the term commercialization? I wonder if it was coined when you were here. Oh, I remember suddenly, you were all for something(s) called socialism, equality, right? Well, now days we scarcely hear about equality and socialism has paved way for communism. Equality is now restricted in textbooks of mathematics and perhaps to some paragraphs in constitution. The balance is uneven now between the rich and poor and completely tilted socially. Those who were backward and ‘your harijans’ once, are now given special preferences for various educational and job opportunities. But this is perhaps our own fault – if we had gone to vote all these years, perhaps these leaders might worry about us too. But, you see, this is where the commercialization part comes into act. Over years, they have used ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ so much in their speeches, debates and manifestos (more for their own use, than anything else) that I wonder if you are still a Mahatma for them or just a figure of speech. You must be worth trillions of dollars (not rupee, because its values is less) because just your name has earned these politicians lots of money.

Perhaps, this is the reason why we cry your jai-jaikar three times for every one time that we shout for Shastriji’s, even though he was born on the same day. It was because of your sellable name that congress decided to portray you as the father of the nation even though there is no constitutional provision for anyone of such stature, and that is why I am addressing this letter to you and not to Shastriji.

Please convey my apologies to Shastriji for not writing him a separate letter, I won’t be able to bake the cake if were to write two letters. And yes, I’ll be writing his name on the cake as well – Happy Birthday Bapu & Shastriji! I hope you don’t mind sharing your cake with him. Shastriji, if I remember my textbooks clearly, is remembered for two main things – his being the second prime minister of the country, and his slogan – Jai Jawan, Jai Kisaan!

Both of them are in pretty bad shape, committing suicides under surmounting pressure. Neither gets the deserved return for their uphill struggle; however, the government keeps making promises for them in every election and every budget. Recently, a waiver of multi-thousand crores was given to farmers which left the nation wondering if our government really had such huge amounts of money in surplus. But we all know that this money gets raised by the different set of taxes and licenses that the government imposes which includes arms and liquor licenses as well. But don’t you worry Bapu, constitutionally, the state is still directed by your principles – Gandhian principles (Directive Principles of State Policy).

Neither for a moment you should worry about your quantum of popularity being constrained to politics only. There have been a lot of movies based on you or around you in Indian Film Industry as well. The most popular (and commercially successful) of them in fact, started an entire debate based on you and your principles throughout the nation. Everyone expressed their view about your philosophy, made up a new term – Gandhigiri combining you with our age hooliganism and then went their way. But you must be proud of the fact that the fanfare went on for months. Otherwise, in a billion strong nation with around 30 news channels issues get lost even before transmission. And then there are politically motivated writers (who are politicians themselves sometimes) who use your name to drag their titles into quagmire of controversy and thus, gain recognition. All in all, you still become headline of some national daily every other day.

Some of us may not be satisfied by you and your ways (which includes me as well), because they sometimes lead us to great losses – after all we can’t face terrorists with ahimsa! But the fact remains that you are remembered fondly all over – India and beyond. So please don’t lose faith in us, we may not be all truthful, sincere and ahimsawadi like you but we are not that courageous either. The freedom that you won for us was just the launch of an expedition, a foray into ourselves of the greatness that we had achieved and the duties that are strapped to us now.
I sincerely hope (for ourselves) that we’ll not let you down.

Arpit Bharat Gupta

P.S. : No courier service can take the cake to where you are, so I won’t be able to send you a piece of your own birthday cake. But I promise that I will savor every bite of it and shall make you one if they let me in to where you are, when I die.