HIS LOVE FOR WALKS
Mahatma Gandhi's statues of him walking with a stick for
support is quite popular. This is attributed to his fondness for long walks,
which were an integral part of his life. Terming it as the 'prince of
exercises', he enjoyed them right from his high school days. Even when he was
studying in London, he would save money by walking eight to ten miles a day .
According to him, it was these walks that kept him away from illnesses
throughout his stay in England and gave him a strong body . This habit served him
well during the Dandi March in the year 1930, when he embarked on a walk from
Sabarmati ashram to Dandi at the age of 60.
It is also believed that he walked around 79,000 kilometers
between the year 1913 and 1938, as a part of his campaigns. That is enough to
encompass the earth, twice.
HOW DHOTIS BECAME HIS STAPLE ATTIRE
European suits or traditional Gujarati attire, Gandhiji was
always known to be well-dressed. But during a visit to Madurai in the year
1921, which was struck by extreme poverty at the time, he noticed many people
wearing only a single length dhoti. Deeply affected by the plight of the common
man, he decided on making dhoti his permanent outfit. Since then, the dhoti, a
pair of glasses and hand-charkha has become synonymous with his personality .
THE FOOTBALL CONNECT
Gandhi took great interest in football. While he was working
as a lawyer between 1893 and 1915 in South Africa, he helped establish three
football clubs in Durban, Pretoria and Johannesburg that were all named Passive
Resisters Soccer Club. He used the game as a means of promoting his ideology of
non-violence and passive resistance and that is where the clubs derived their
names from. At the time, the concept of team was stronger than the idea of
individual star players. This idea of team-work appealed to him and he used it
as means to encourage people to join social activism by distributing pamphlets
during matches. Through these matches, he also aimed to achieve equal rights in
the country for the non-white community .While there is no proof that he
actually played the game, it is said that he often delivered speeches to the
team or the crowd at half-time.
THE MAN OF MANY TITLES
According to a popular anecdote, when Gandhiji visited
Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan in the year 1915, he greeted him with a
'Namaste Gurudev'. On hearing this, Tagore's reply was, "If I am Gurudev,
you are Mahatma". Since then Mahatma, which means a great soul, has become
popular as his first name.
'Father of the Nation' might not have been officially
accorded by the Indian Government, but it still has come to be associated with
him. The origin of the term dates back to a radio address by Subhas Chandra
Bose on Singapore radio on July 6, 1944 as the Indian National Army that was
headed by him started its march in Delhi.
HE WAS NOMINATED FIVE TIMES FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
While it may seem that Gandhiji was one of the most ideal
candidates for a Nobel Peace Prize, fact remains that he never won the prize
even once.Known for encouraging non-violent means in India's struggle for
freedom, he was nominated five times in the same category in a period of 11
years - 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and lastly in 1948, the year he was
assassinated. In 1948, the committee opted against honouring him with the award
posthumously and instead declared that there was `no suitable living candidate'
that year. Years later, they expressed regret on not giving the prize to him.
GANDHI WAS A PART OF THE ANGLO-BOER WAR
Gandhi was a practising lawyer in Durban at the time of the
Anglo-Boer war that was held between 1899 and 1902. He formed a volunteer
Ambulance Corps for the British Army . The Natal Indian Ambulance Corps, as it
came to be known, comprised 300 free and 800 indentured labourers sent by their
employers. The duty of the group was to take the injured people brought by the
Natal volunteer ambulance corps from the battlefield and carry them to the
railhead. The task of getting the wounded from one place to the other was
hectic and the march, which was estimated to be some 25 miles, fell to Gandhi
and his men, who worked as stretcher bearers.
For this, the British commander General Buller awarded
Gandhi and his men the `Queen's South Africa campaign medal'.
HE INTERACTED WITH MANY GREAT NAMES THROUGH LETTERS
Mahatma Gandhi maintained a regular contact with many great
names by means of letters. Some of these great personalities who he wrote to,
included great historical figures like writer Leo Tolstoy , Adolf Hitler and
the genius, Einstein. In these letters, they would speak of issues affecting
them on an everyday basis, writing words of admiration to each other and
inspiring each other's works. Often, they would also discuss ideas on issues of
national and international importance. In one of the letters to Adolf Hitler, Gandhi
expressed his disappointment on his wrong doings to the other people.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/people/7-Inspiring-facts-about-Gandhi/articleshow/49192789.cms
