This Is How I Celebrated Gandhi Jayanti

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
(2 October 1869 - 30 January 1948)

It was October 2nd and I wanted to write something about Mahatma Gandhi, when, out of the blue, I was required to tend to three monsters. My sister asked me to pick up her three kids from the bus stop on their return from school as she had a dinner meeting with her clients. Just because I do not go out to work doesn't mean that I am available for babysitting every other day. I have plenty of unfinished tasks at home—a long list of to-read novels, half-read articles, half-finished blogs etc. etc.

Even so I decided to make the most of this setback. I thought if I could make these devils write something about Gandhiji, I would be spared from the hard work of compiling a blog by googling and copy-pasting from various websites. Thus I handed them notebooks and pens, showed them a picture of Gandhiji from Wikipedia, and asked them to write something about the great man. I sat in the same room with my laptop and browsed Facebook, all the while gloating over the fact that I have three apprentices working for me. Here is what they came up with:

Sneha (Age 11)
Mahatma Gandhi was a great man. Indians love him. He is like George Washington of India. He fought against the British to make India free. Mother often tells me that women are still not free in India. I guess he only fought for men. He was a great leader. He had a lot of children therefore he is called the father of the nation. These days there are many Gandhis in India. Dad says Gandhis have looted India. It proves that Mahatma Gandhi did not give good education to his children, or maybe they have forgotten everything he had taught. Indians still love Mahatma Gandhi and celebrate his birthday on 2nd October. My cousins in India know a lot more about him.

Raj (Age 8)
Gandhi looks very old and also very poor. He doesn't even have clothes. I wish someone celebrated his birthday so that he would get lots of gifts. I think the old man is a little boy like Auro from the movie, Paa, and suffers from an illness in which children become old. I feel sorry for him. Even though he is ugly, I would play with him. He seems a nice boy, who always smiles. It looks like if someone slapped Gandhi, instead of hitting back, he would offer another cheek. I really like him. If he ever comes to my house, I would let him play with my toys.

Riya (Age 6)
Gandhi is an old man. He has two eyes, two ears, one nose, and one mouth. He also has a mustache. He has very little hair. His skin is gray. He has glasses like Harry Potter’s. I don't like Mausi. She is bad. She is wicked. She doesn't let us play. Mausi is so evil that even my superpower friends are afraid of her. Mausaji is also afraid of her. When she finds little children alone, she beats them and shuts them in a dark room in her basement, and then the children become ghosts. When I grow up, I will make her write essays. I hope mommy comes home soon. The food was horrible. I wanted mac and cheese and she made us eat daal chawal.

Huh…what was that? Such ignorance! When my sister Binodini came home, I gave her an earful on how she is not raising her kids well. I told her to teach her kids Indian culture. They should at least know how to respect elders, especially their mother’s sister.