Born in 1869, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi returned to India as a lawyer at the age of 22. (Representative/News18 Hindi)
It has been reported that Mahatma Gandhi was an ordinary student until he completed matriculation, like all other children. He had common childhood fears, such as being afraid of the dark, and believing in superstitions such as snakes and ghosts.
In his book ‘Gandhi Kyon Nahi Marte!‘ published by Radhakrishna Prakashan, Chandrakant Wankhede shared interesting stories related to Gandhi’s personal life.
Once, when Gandhi was in high school, an English officer came for an examination and asked the students to answer a question. Gandhi was answering it in the wrong way. When his teacher saw this, he told Gandhi to copy the writing of the boy sitting in front of him.
At first, young Gandhi ignored his teacher’s actions. The teacher, thinking that Gandhi might have misunderstood, tried again, this time pressing Gandhi’s leg. Even when the teacher directly instructed him, Gandhi refused to copy.
It’s Time to Disappoint Following Gandhi’s Advocacy
Born in 1869, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi returned to India as a lawyer at the age of 22. He applied to become a lawyer in Mumbai. However, he had to face great difficulties. After about two years, he returned to Rajkot. However, even there, Gandhi did not succeed.
Wankhede wrote in his book that when Gandhi was tired of his failures and frustrated, he chose to do low-skilled jobs like writing documents even though he didn’t like it. Disappointed, he applied to become a teacher at the school. However, his request was not accepted.
During this period of despair, a letter from South Africa in 1893 came as a ray of hope. The letter was from ‘Dada Abdullah and Company’, a merchant from the Memon community. In the letter, Gandhi was asked if he was ready to come to South Africa.
The case of Dada Abdullah and Company was still being heard in court. The lawyer who was an Englishman knew no other language than English. Dada Abdullah and Company also did not understand his language. The company expected Gandhi to do the work of translating and interpreting, rather than speaking. Although the job was not what he expected, Gandhi accepted immediately.
Why Gandhi Stopped Salting His Life
Once, Mahatma Gandhi’s wife, Kasturba Gandhi, fell ill. The doctor advised him to stop eating salt in order to recover. However, Kasturba refused to follow the doctor’s advice, saying that food without salt is useless. Despite the doctor’s repeated insistence, he remained steadfast. Even Gandhi tried to convince him, but Kasturba got angry and said, “It is very easy to say such things to others…”
At that time, Gandhi decided to stop adding salt to his food. Later, Kasturba regretted this and apologized, trying to persuade him to reconsider. However, Gandhi remained firm in his decision.