Ahmedabad - Day 3
This morning we’re on our own and take a walk about through
the campus of St. Xavier’s College.
It’s a pretty typical college campus, kids in clumps outside the student
union, a green quad surrounded by low-rise buildings labeled for their
discipline (School of Computer Applications). Everyone seems to ride a scooter. The Men’s Hostel is on
campus; the women’s a couple of kilometers away. (This strikes both of us as odd and even more so when, over
breakfast the next morning, we hear about the knifing of the night watchman at
the women’s hostel, the previous night. The consensus of the priests is that it was a drug
dealer sending a a ’message’ or coming to collect a debt, from a co-ed!)
We spend some time with a sociology professor who is the
lead for an effort to better the lives of Dakin(?) and tribal women in the
northern and eastern part of the state.
Like so many crusaders everywhere, their passion is intense and
infectious.
This afternoon we visit Gandhi’s Ashram in which he lived
for 12 years (1919-1931) after returning from Africa and before leading his
famous marches and his ultimate non-violent movement to liberate India from the
British. It is an unassuming place
and, sadly, not too well kept. The
grounds are tired and the displays lack a chronological unity. That said, it is still a holy
place.
We spend about two hours walking, reading, sitting and
contemplating the profound impact this one, humble man had, not just on India
but on the whole world.
His room and where he spun the simple cloth which became his rallying cry for Indians being proud of their country.
I’ve
forgotten to mention that it is a rare city in India that doesn’t have a statue
of the Mahatma at its center – smack dab in the middle of the busiest
intersection, there he is, in his dhoti, sandals, carrying his walking stick or
sometimes sitting in the lotus position.
No military heroes, no statues of generals with swords, no plaques
extolling their conquests, the battles they won – nope, just this simple man
wearing one big piece of cloth, simple sandals, and carrying a walking
stick.
