Happy Gandhi Jayanthi

I used to attend Balavikas when we used to reside in U.A.E, that is, till I turned 11. But I still remember those stories they used to tell us every Friday; it used to be fun to assign our own morals and quotations at the end, but today, in senior high school, I realise they taught us much more than morals; we learnt real life stories on how to live and how not, myths on good and bad habits, legends of God and man .... they are pearls of education that I miss many a time here in Chennai, TN, India. Our real life subject most of the time used to be Mahatma Gandhi. I think, as today is Gandhi Jayanthi, these stories may be relevant to the occassion:-

(These are stories that I'd heard when I was a small kid, around 6 or 7 years old, and have only a mental record of them. So, you could state that they are abridged versions of the episodes from "My Experiments with Truth".)

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, our 'Bapu', loved his mother a lot. He couldn't bear to see her suffer at any time. Now, Gandhi's mother used to have her lunch only after a certain bird had eaten and given it's call. This disturbed Gandhi a lot because some days, the bird never used to call and his mother went on without any food.
So, he devised a plan.
With a new whistle that he'd got as a gift, Gandhi practised and got the perfect imitation of the bird's call. Therefore, whenever the bird refused to give it's call, Gandhi blew his whistle, so that his mother would have her lunch. But unfortunately, Gandhi's mother found this out in a few days ( come on, there was no bird, but its call came? She suspected.....). Disappointed in her son, she called him close and asked him to explain why he did this to her. When he finished, she told him something he could never forget (neither could I).
"Son, I am touched by your compassion. But you have done something nobody should have done. You have created something false because you thought that it would be good for me. But let me tell you this, truth always triumphs . Because of what you have done, my faith in my belief has been shattered. Think along about everyone's beliefs when you want to do something. Remember, truth is the basis for any strong bond."
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When Mahatma Gandhi was 10 years old, he had a friend who ate meat. Gandhiji's family was strictly vegetarian, as we know. But out of friendship, Gandhi used to eat the non - vegetarian food that was brought by his friend for quite a while. In return for the food, Gandhi took a gold coin from his father's shirt and paid it to his friend. Unable to bear the guilt for a long time, Gandhi wrote the truth in a piece of paper and gave it to his father, begging for pardon and fearing what should be feared by little boys who make 'mistakes'.
But Gandhi's father read the note, closed his eyes for a few seconds and tore the paper. By this, Gandhi learnt, that truth was not punished. His father had not scolded him because of his truthfullness and by this gesture, he taught his son to never waver away from where he stood in his path of life.
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