Though the Indian cricket team did not practise Gandhigiri in the second Test at Durban yesterday ufffd gifting away the match to South Africa ufffd the spirit of Bapu lives on in the country
Though the Indian cricket team did not practise Gandhigiri in the second Test at Durban yesterday ufffd gifting away the match to South Africa ufffd the spirit of Bapu lives on in the country.
Mahatma Gandhi's great grandson, Tushar Gandhi who was watching the fourth day of the second Test in Mumbai says, "Unfortunately, I did not see the last wicket to fall because I had to take my father into town (South Mumbai). Yet, when I watched Jacques Kallis depart early on, it was a happy moment. It felt like we were going to win."
Gandhiji was in South Africa for 20 years after arriving in Durban in May, 1893.Tushar says that Durban evoked memories and South Africa itself held a great sense of history for him, personally as a Gandhi because of the Mahatma Gandhi connection. "History cannot overshadow my interest in cricket. For me, it was the cricketing moment that counted when India won the match, as I am a devoted cricket follower like so many Indians. History took a backseat. Also, this win once again sealed my faith in Test cricket. Of all the forms of the game, the Test version is still my favourite," he said.
Look past the cricket fan and one can picture a little Indian boy in Durban, uncaring at that age of what his surname Gandhi meant in SA. "I was a kid in the '60s when I went to live with my grandmother at a place called the Phoenix Settlement, which was nearly 20 miles outside Durban.
"Those days there was no electricity there. It was a rustic kind of existence and our house was on the summit of a hill. My parents were in England at that time, as my mother had to go there for a spinal operation."
Durban days
Childhood memories come flooding back like the time. "I used to run around the open ground (it was a 100 acre plot) plucking fruit off the trees and eating it. Then, some local boys told me that the trees were home to deadly snakes like the Green Mamba. That put an end to my craving for the fruit," he laughed.
Yesterday, as the Indian cricket team celebrated the big win, one has no doubt Tushar's great grandfather, a toothless old man, with silver rimmed glasses, with a stick and a dhoti is smiling from above and saying to himself: There's always history to be made in Durban.
