The Nomadic Flâneuse

One of coldest days, gloomy, murky. Someone was wiping Mahatma Gandhi’s statue when we walked  pass the small but lush corner at Union Square.

It is a bit ironic to see Mahatma Gandhi Ji at the part of city, surrounded by high-end and discount retailers, crowded with overflowing tourists and locals. Well time is always money, For the boys at Union Square, as the lyrics goes.

Has anyone heard Bapu Ji talking, with his calm yet urging, soft yet convincing voice, on social justice, on universal love, on non violence, on disassociation with material life, on freedom and independence?

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”

“I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings. My wisdom flows from the Highest Source. I salute that Source in you. Let us work together for unity and love.”

“Three quarters of the miseries and misunderstandings in the world would finish if people were to put on the shoes of their adversaries and understood their points of view.”

A couple of years ago, at one of these chilly gloomy nights, after watching the film Gandhi in a small courtyard in Beijing, someone asked a question,

What if Gandhi were in China?

• The shot hits the bird that pokes its head out, nonconformity gets punished. He would not only be killed immediately and his reputation would be discredited.
• The media would be controlled so he would never have the chance to be even close to people.

What would Gandhi say about China today?

• He would attack on the worship of money and showoffs from metropolitan to nouveau riches. When Nehru said: “Bapuji, the whole country is moving”, he asked, “but in what direction?”
• He would criticize on the smug self satisfactory as a disease smothering the country.  “Life is not for indulgence but essentially for self-denial.”
• He would shake his head for the hostility to Islam. “I am a Muslim, and a Hindu, and a Christian, and a Jew, and so are all of you. When you wave those flags and shout, you send fear into the hearts of your brothers. That is not the China I want! Stop it! For God’s sake stop it!
• He would be so disappointed by the young idealists turned to global exilian or indifferent burghers. “If you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.”
• …
• …

At the end of the night, only the sound of the burning firewood and endless silence.

Last year when I went back to Beijing, the courtyard itself was demolished and gone.

Albert Einstein said at Gandhi’s funeral: “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”

Long live Bapu Ji. Is it cold in Union Square tonight?