Monday, October 30, 2006

The mind of the Mahatma

Hi,

Had been reading some serious stuff over the last week. It had been some time since I read something serious. Hence, the impact of what I read last week left a deep impression on me.

The stuff I read was Gandhi - A Memoir, by William L. Shirer. The biographer was truly awesome as he could successfully penetrate into the mind of Gandhi. The energy levels of Gandhi, his basic love for action and his simple, yet shrewd political thinking - Shirer deserves a great deal of laurels for having brought forth all these to the reader.

Gandhi must have firmly believed that he would die only after winning Freedom for India. And what a life the man had led. I find it truly hard to believe his passion to free India - be it during his visit to England for discussions with the British, or during his visit to Manchester to witness the suffering mill workers, or while his visit to Shimla to visit the new Viceroy.

I was equally amazed by Shirer's ability to cover Gandhi's life with the same ease as he exercised in covering Hitler's (Shirer was simultaneously working on the rise and fall of the Third Reich). Shirer's mind must have had the ability to seek the true persona of human beings. Only then, I believe, he could have covered these two antithetical, contemporary and giant personalities of world history.

More later,

Vijay Pitchai

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