In the serenity of the small garden in the backyard of the Birla house, I sat at a round table, shaded from the setting sun by a beautiful Nimbi tree. Across, sat the Mahatma Ghandi, clad in his simple white robe, looking at me through round eye glasses and wearing a smile on his face that tells a thousand stories.
1. Who, would you say, the Mahatma Gandhi is?
"My name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, born in the city of Porbandar in the state of Gujarat, North West of India on the 2nd of October, 1869, and I am the youngest of my four siblings. My father was the Chief Minister of Porbandar and my mother, his fourth wife, was a devoted follower of the Vishnu, the peace-loving deity of the Hindu Trinity. Although she was committed to teaching us values of peace, tolerance, righteousness and truth, I was not very attentive and did not take those values very seriously in my adolescent years."(http://asianhistory.about.com/od/profilesofasianleaders/p/GandhiProf.htm, http://www.history.co.uk/biographies/mahatma-gandhi, http://hinduism.about.com/od/godsgoddesses/p/vishnu.htm)
2. Where did you receive your education and under which circumstances have you developed your thought?
He smiled at me, reminiscing old times and said:
"Being born into an advantaged social class I was very lucky to have had the chance to receive an education since a very young age, but I must admit I was not a very strong student. My father had always wanted me to become a lawyer, so I enrolled in Samaldas College at the University of Bombay. After passing my exams, with difficult I may add, I was offered the opportunity to continue my studies at University College London. I was aged 18 at the time, had been married for 5 years and my eldest son had been born in the same year I left...
It was in England, in 888, that I experienced a transformation where I become more conscious of my mission and aware of the necessity of being dedicated to m...