answer this.
fast.
fast
Answers
Explanation:
Dear Bapu,
It’s difficult for me to believe, living in the times that one lives in, that you will actually read this letter. So please look upon this more as what you would probably call an experiment with truth, than any hope of an actual exchange. Grief therapists sometimes ask people to write letters to loved ones they have lost. I believe that you are still loved in this country by many, despite your various imperfections. I believe that many of us, born well after your time, have grown to miss you even as we have grown to know you and debate your life’s worth.
Please forgive any incoherence that follows. An experiment with truth is not readily coherent. You should know.
On your birth anniversary, one recent bit of news is that the president of the United States has dubbed our current prime minister ‘Father of the Nation’ too. How strange, I thought, when I heard. The informal title of ‘Father of the Nation’ for you can be traced back to Netaji Subhas, that great patriot who differed from you on the means to independence, but chose nevertheless to address you with the utmost respect. In the case of the prime minister too this title was bequeathed informally, but by the premier of a foreign state. But then what can one say Bapu. These are strange times.
For instance, just the other day I was thinking of the story of you being thrown out of a train compartment for daring to travel first class. This is rare nowadays. Not just in South Africa, but anywhere in the world. Oppressive systems of the world have wizened up to the mischief of lives like yours. They now lock the world’s privileged securely into metaphorical first class compartments, throw away the key, and ply them with the finest food and wine. The privileged in India today are far more at one with the privileged in other parts of the world than they were when you were fighting for independence. So you see Bapu, there is little reason for any of us to really change anything. Yes. Us. I travel in this metaphorical first class compartment too