After the caves, we didn’t have much time before the day ended, so we had to make a decision about what to see. I really wanted to visit the Prince of Wales museum, but we would have had to rush through it, so we decided to go to the place where Gandhi stayed when he was in Bombay from 1917-1934. It was the right decision and a true highlight of the day. We had visited a Gandhi museum in Madurai, but it was closing shortly after we arrived and we didn’t get to spend much time there.
There was just something about being in this quaint little home turned museum that was the perfect way to end our trip. The museum has so many pictures and quotes clearly displayed and easily read. There was also the room that he lived in, so spare, so clean and so purposeful – it really impacted us. I remember being so in love with Gandhi when I was a kid. I had come upon him when I learned that he had influenced MLK, my childhood hero. I was fascinated with his principle of Satyagraha (passive resistance)and his strength.
So Mike and I spent a while just reading and looking at his image, from a really young boy to the iconic picture of him, fraille, bald, round spectacles, donning a white dhoti and a walking stick. We were filled with his spirit. For days we had been talking about what it takes to make personal change and change in the world --the need to believe, to work extremely hard, to be humble, to lead by example, to be tolerant and compassionate and to look inside oneself before pointing outward to the trouble with others. [We had also been wrestling with the negatives and positives of Western v. Eastern cultures, examining capitalism and how its success relies on people never being quite satisfied, always striving for more, thinking they need more to be happy, to be secure, always agitating and breeding unnecessary competition and a lack of peace. From our point of view, capitalism without compassion is the real problem, but also, that maybe within capitalism are the seeds of selfish behavior and an ultimately a turning away from God and community.]
it was so also great to be in the India that Gandhi had worked so hard to free, to see all the progress that had been made and to see all that is still left to be done. I had talked to several folks about how such a spiritual country with a real belief in equality (of all and also of men and women) could create and maintain a caste system that separated people from their humanity and suppressed women? There were lots of explanations, basically that the system was corrupted so that people started wrongly assigning different human value to the differences in the type of work people performed. I was happy to be in a place where Gandhi wrote and fought passionately for the untouchables and spoke up for the rights of women.
And also here we are in 2010, when the Indian government has just passed a woman’s reservation law, requiring there to be 30 percent (I think that is the right number) of women in government positions. There have been reservations (their word for affirmative action) for folks from the lower castes too, but more than one person told us that there have been issues of these individuals being given positions for which they were not qualified and that this was making progress slower. I was sad to hear this, for this is the same issue of affirmative action (concerns about the merit of the beneficiaries)that I have to deal with in my work every day. I guess I would have to know more about how it was done in India to know the nature and extent of the concerns. One person did say that other folks believe that without these reservations, nothing would have changed and that there are issues but it will get better.
Being in the Gandhi museum at the end of my wonderful trip, was a reminder about what I want my life to be about -- justice and an end to oppression wherever it is found. For Tres, I see him asking himself how does one follow one’s call to be used on the behalf of others? What does a life of discipline and commitment looks like? How does one stay true to a calling? How does one have faith to conquer the obstacles and doubts?
At the end of our day, we ate at Leipolds where all the foreigners and some young Indians hang out. We were feeling so solid that we decided to walk back to the hotel instead of taking a taxi. The night air was beautiful; we sat outside on the beach wall opposite our hotel. There were lots of folks out. A family (a woman and two girls) asked us for food. Mike left, went to our room, grabbed the two apples given to us (compliments of the hotel, but that we dare not eat) and brought them to the family. I don't know what they thought about his offering, but i thought, wow at least he found a way to give something. It's hard to say no i have nothing to give when you know you have so much.
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