Kursela Days 12 – Gandhi Ashram

There was a small Gandhi Ashram in Kursela, which I visited a couple of times. I first got acquainted to the person running the place when he came to meet a neighbour of mine. This neighbour was a Gujarati engineer working with a very large Bombay based construction company. He was on a field posting to supervise the building of high voltage electricity pylons in the Kosi. I came to know through him that the Gandhi Ashram incharge was also a Gujarati who had once been a prosperous merchant in Burma before the Second World War. He had lost all his family members and his business in the bombings by the Japanese during the war and had lost all interest in life. Having no desire left in living, in sheer desperation he came to India to meet Gandhiji and seek his guidance. Though communication channels were primitive in those days, Gandhiji’s itinerary was widely reported in the press. But it so happened, that by the time this person reached the place where Gandhiji had last visited, Gandhiji had already left the place. This gentlemen kept on following Gandhiji and finally met up with him while Gandhiji was passing through Kursela and unburdened all his woes to him. Gandhiji then asked some local people if they could donate a building, to which some local big-wig agreed. Gandhiji converted that building into an Ashram for propagating his ideas, running a primary school, and a goshala (place for taking care of cows who are old or sick) and put this gentleman in charge of the Ashram. For the previous 40 odd years this Gujarati gentleman was running the Ashram in Kursela and had not once left the place. Such was the power of Gandhiji!