Gandhi

Popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, widely revered as Father of Nation in India.

The first book of his that i read was Sathya Sodhanai, the tamil translation of his autobiography, My Experiments with Truth. I got this book from my friend Selvaraj, who got this book as a prize for some competition that he won.

Knowing more about Gandhi

After reading about Gandhi in How to Get Whatever You Want , i wanted to know more about Gandhi. Indian government had just then liberalised its economy and i read a number of articles critisizing the new policies and instead uelogising Gandhi’s vision. So i ordered four of five books from Navajivan Trust ↗ that supposedly contained the views of Gandhi. I can’t recall the exact names of those books purchased between 1992-94. They were roughly

• India of My Dreams
• Village Swaraj or Khadi
• A book on Sathyagraha
• A book on Education
• Yoga for all by Jitendra Aarya

After reading his views on mass production from those books, i realized why Nehru was correct to junk his economic ideals.

I was however more inclined to accept his views on Non-violence or Sathyagraha.

Vegetarianism

I even embraced his idea of vegetarianism and stopped eating meating by first year of my college. Having read Tirukkural earlier also influcened this decision.

Later during second or third year of college, i also read one another book titled “உயிருள்ள இயற்கை உணவுகள் - Uyirulla Iyarkai Unavugal” written by Dr A V G Reddy, which i got from my friend Vasudevan.