By The Editor

It was not easy off course, coming to terms with a man on whom I use to crack jokes? His emaciated figure, loincloth and even simple stick were subject of laughter among us friends. True, he played the major role behind gaining the democracy we take for granted but yet Mohandas Gandhi was not exactly the kind of founding father figure among many Indian youth like me. I bore a sense of grudge towards him for letting India bifurcate into two and I still believe India’s policy of offering right cheek when enemy slaps the left one would not go well with Pakistan. But, as I said in the beginning I still give him credit for what he did for Indians.

Alabama was an eye-opener. I was aware about racism, discrimination and prejudice through books, news papers and documentaries but never had any firsthand experience until that sweltering day in summer. One of my former colleagues had recommended me to a local firm for job opening, the interview was scheduled for noon. It was hot, humid but the job was the priority. I reached at the office five minutes before the appointment but the door was locked, from the inside. It was a glass door so I thought someone would pass by and open the knob for me because I had confirmed the time over the phone and they knew I had an interview but no one showed up. I knocked but no one came. So I waited and knocked again. Finally, a girl happened to pass by, I waved at her, she looked at me, paused for a moment and then disappeared again. I was trying to understand what was going on when the guy with whom I was suppose to interview showed up in the lobby. I smiled expecting that he would let me in but he didn’t had any expressions in response on his stoic face. He just gave a cold look and went back in not even showing the courtesy of saying no. Here, I was sweating and staring through that glass door but I guess it was latched for me, to keep me out. May be there might have been some other reason or may be I was not fair enough for him to be even considered for a glass of water but, I had a very strong feeling that it was related to my appearance, my background and origin.

Most of the people I met over all these years in United Sates have been very kind and understanding but its just this one incident was etched in my memory. For the first time in my life I felt like those we call untouchables in India, for the first time I knew how it feels to be at the receiving end of the prejudice.

There was a small tree in one of the fields of our campus that was planted in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I don’t remember the type of the plant but it was not big enough for shade and except for the gardening and maintenance guys hardly anyone took notice or cared about it but it had a small significance for me. The education, the freedom, the liberty that students like me enjoyed was possible because of man who based his struggle on the teachings of Mahatma. MLK acted as an intellectual bridge between us but this didn’t happened overnight. It was slow, small ordinary experiences that lead to the moment of reconciliation. It was volunteering with fellow students to cleanup a poor, forsaken and predominantly black neighborhood where sidewalks were riddled with litter, unpicked trash bags and what it seemed to me a part of human intestines, I got to see the side of United States that’s not shown on TV. Travelling in buses frequented by peasants, store clerks, paupers and parolees that now symbolized the financial rather than racial struggle of the American society made me think twice about our own faults, our own failures in helping the helpless. Race was always a sort of unspoken but omnipresent fact about life in Birmingham, Alabama. If not for the works of Dr. King and other civil rights activist, no ethnic minority student would have the privilege of simple college education in southern United States. Dr. King to me was a bridge towards Gandhi.

I don’t agree with all of Gandhi’s ideas but I came to develop a sense of respect towards this short, austere, vegetarian teetotaler who made this world a little better place.