As we celebrate Father’s
Day this month,
perhaps we can learn a
lesson from Mahatma
Gandhi. He is remembered
as the Father of
the Nation, but probably
wouldn’t have won
any “Father of the Year”
awards.
“He should have
given more time and
attention to his wife
and sons, and listened
more to them,” Rajmohan
Gandhi, noted
public intellectual and Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson,
said in a recent interview with IANS. “A flawless Gandhi
would have been a superb husband and a superb father,
in addition to being the astonishing friend and inspirer
he was to Indians of every kind.”
Rajmohan, promoting his new book, Why Gandhi
Still Matters, added that his grandfather was only too
human. “He could not resist an all-consuming passion
to liberate an enslaved India, and to make all Indians
friendly and if possible forgiving to one another.”
No fathers are perfect, of course, but most fathers
have the opportunity to decide how much time they
want to spend with their children. To change the old
saying slightly, nobody ever said on their deathbed, “I
wish I hadn’t spent so much time with my children.”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
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