Gandhi jayanti

Today (2 October) happens to be Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary, a national holiday in India. However, the Mahatma will be turning in his grave—stirring in his ashes, if one has to be technically correct—to know that all we do on this day is just shut our offices and shops, and in general sit on our arses doing nothing. A fine way to pay tribute to the Father of the Nation!

At least this time it was a Sunday.

On a lighter note: one gold star to McDonalds! Was in there having a spot of lunch there—yes, yes, in total contravention of Mr Gandhi’s Swadeshi philosophy! I was hungry, give me a break! I knocked over my iced tea by mistake, and they replaced it for me, at no cost. Maybe McDonald’s have a policy of doing this in other parts of the world, but Indian commercial establishments generally don’t behave this way. For heaven’s sake, you can’t even return defective goods for a refund!

Am watching Gandhi on national televsion as I write this. Must have seen this at least a dozen times—both in English and dubbed in Hindi—and it never fails to give me goose pimples…

~PD

7 Replies to “Gandhi jayanti”

  1. They wouldn’t do that here. Unless you did it in front of them. Otherwise, you’re out of luck.

    Wow I haven’t been to Micky D’s since August.

  2. Happy Birthday to Mahatma Gandhi! My goodness, doesn’t it make you wish there were more people in the world like him? I don’t know if it could be..

    Lol, I am glad you had such a good McDonald’s experience. They certainly should do that wherever they are. *Hmph!* Doesn’t that clown give you the willies though? 😉

  3. While talking about the movie Gandhi, my most favourite scene is the one where a resident of Gandhi’s Ashram brings a goat to him announcing that the goat has got leg injuries. At the time, Gandhi was discussing with stalwarts like Jawaharlal Nehru on an issue of national importance.

    On learning about the goat’s injuries, Gandhi at once left the meeting and went on to nurse the goat himself. On this, Nehru rued that Bapu was leaving a meeting dealing with a matter concerning national independence for the sake of a goat. To that Mahatma replied that for him providing relief to an injured goat was as important as making India an independent nation.

    Bapu, I am proud to tell you that yesterday, on your birthday, I was working on a project which may well make a part of this wonderful world a little more meaningful.

  4. About McDee’s, I think their functioning depends on the staff at each outlet. There are some right royal twerps at the branch near Big Bazaar in Anand Vihar who have redefined “minimal servings” when it comes to hot chocolate fudge.

    As for the Father of the Nation, poor lad. The kids that my mum teach think that he was too “soft” and say that his methods would not have worked in today’s “aggressive and competitive” world. Of course, many of them are blaming him for depriving them of a holiday just because his birthday fell on a Sunday this time.

    About the movie, I always get fascinated by the fact that it took an Englishman (Richard Attenborough) to capture the essence of Gandhi on film.

  5. My site is working!!!

    *random*

  6. And you had to announce that here…?

    I’ve never seen Gandhi. Should I rent it?

  7. Oh, she was announcing that because I was questioning her at length about it the other day!

    Regarding Gandhi, yup!

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