' Cuckoo Cuckoo' The cuckoo clock chimed .Kannan got up with a jump,he looked around for his Achan .'Achan must have gone for his daily morning walk' he thought.Kannan was in a thrilling mood today Ammu was coming from Palaghat for a week. Ammu was his cousin , Kannan felt like a butterfly with excitement ,though she was a bit bossy at times ,reminding him always that she was six months elder to him,but both had a great time together climbing on trees ,rocks ,playing through fields, plucking lotus flowers from ponds etc . As he was brushing his teeth a favourite tempting aroma from the kitchen reached tingled his nose 'Amma are you making stew?? ' 'Yes Kanna,come have your breakfast with hot 'appams' &chicken stew ' 'No Amma ,I will have it with Ammachan & Ammamma later.' He looked for his Ammamma As usual she was in her Pooja room.,daily her number of dieties and pooja time kept on increasing.The morning hours for her were occupied in this procedure .Kannan felt sad because,she used to make him special 'palharams & paysams ' before. Kannan peeped into her pooja room made a gesture to all the dieties there & ran towards the garden,were he was sure his Ammachan would be relaxing after his brisk morning walk. 'Ammachan Ammacha tell me about Baapu ji ,Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. .Ammachan smiled 'So you haven't forgotten ? Are you interested Kanna....? '.Kanna nodded his head,wondering how this big name came to be shortened to just Baapu. 'Gandhi ji was born in a middle class family in Gujarat .He was married very young,he was a very truthful person,even in his childhood. He always remembered what his mother had taught him about his religion,what to do & what not to do, he followed it till the end of his life.There are lots of stories about him to show his character,but now I am telling you in short ,will tell you in details later, Kanna.' Gandhi ji decided to be barrister so he went to London for higher studies & became an eminent barrister too. He later went to South Africa to practice ,he used to wear suits there as people there wore.' ' That would have been better rather than being half naked' retorted Kannan.'Ha Ha' Ammachan could not control his laughter 'that was not his dream Kanna ' In South Africa an incident in train gave him the feel of discrimination for the first time,discrimination towards black,towards Indians,towards him. 'Discrimination ? Whats that Ammacha ? ' 'Hmmm okay suppose you & Jaggu ( Kannan's friend who was the son of their servant, he was a bit dark too ) are playing, someone comes with toffees,he gives you more toffee than Jaggu,just because he was poor & dark. How would Jaggu feel ? ' 'Very bad Ammachaa.' 'Yes that is discrimination, ignoring someone on the basis of race, colour,caste,money,gender [boy or girl] etc You felt bad na same way Baapu felt very bad, humiliated.The white people over there behaved superior to black .' 'That time our India was under the British rule. When Gandhi ji came back to India ,he felt the same feel here too,discrimination. Do you know the materials that made suits,shirts etc were brought from England & other countries.There was no value for the cloth made here.Gandhi ji thought why should we wear those dresses made by the people who are humiliating us.He thus started to make his own dress by making threads using'' Charkha. .Many people followed him ,they boycotted foreign materials.Gandhi ji never told anyone to do anythng ,he did it himself & his followers followed him ,used to do all his work himself ,even cleaning the toilets. Baapu wanted to show the British the way out of India through Non violence & Ahimsa and he did it.' Kannan was imagining the great man who drove the British away by mere Non violence & Ahimsa, by not hurting anyone physically .'Was it really possible Ammacha? 'Yes he made it possible .' We got our Independence through non violence & Ahimsa .' ' So good na Ammacha ,Why don't people try to be like Baapu .The world would be so good. I love you Baapu ! Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi ' Ammacha smiled ' So now you know the half naked man on the picture hanging on my wall Kanna ' Kanna was excited ,he would tell this story to Ammu. ' I am sure Ammu doesn't know it so well ,though she pretends to know everything '. ' Kannaaaa come for breakfast ' Amma was calling them .'Come on Ammacha the 'appam will go cold, ' waving bye to Achan who was hurrying to office ,they sat down to eat where Ammamma was waiting for them impatiently,She had taken a gap from her prayers for breakfast. Hot steaming 'appams ' & chickrn stew were waiting for them 'Amma its so tasty, you make it so well' !!!'Thoughts of Baapu came flowing in Kannan's mind .'Amma ,I will wash my plates from today, will try to do my work on my own'. Ammachan winked at Kannan and Kannan winked back with a mischevious but mature smile .''.Baapu ki jai '' he murmered to himself.
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