Gandhian footsteps

An experience 20 years ago as a young electronics student led computer consultant, trainer and Internet webmaster Tehemton Adenwalla to compile a commemorative volume on Mahatma Gandhi to celebrate the apostle of peace’s 125th birth anniversary. The book was launched on August 15, 2002 at Bharat Bhavan, Wellington by India’s High Commissioner to New Zealand Bal Anand in the pres­ence of Wellington mayor Kerry Prendergast and a large and distinguished audience led by Mohanbhai Mistry, president of the Wellington Indian Association.

Divided into six sections, the bilingual (English-Gujarati) book acknowledges editorial and financial contributions, examines the life and message of Gandhi as viewed by a variety of authors, repudiates common misunderstandings and promotes some of the Mahat­ma’s ideas as a policy resource out of the quagmire of 21st century devastation of natural resources. It also provides a comprehensive bibliography on Gandhi.

In his preface Adenwalla recalls his initial tryst with Gandhi: In desperate and seemingly fruitless search for an expen­sive US research work, Electronic Circuits by Philip Cutler, Adenwalla had shot off a letter to the author explaining the situation and seeking a copy. To Adenwalla’s "surprise and de­light” Cutler replied, noting, "I will be sending the book in honor of Gandhi.”

"The book did arrive some weeks later. I was certainly grateful to Mr Cutler for his generosity, but I was also grateful to Gandhiji. Using a simplistic way of reasoning, I concluded that Gandhiji had to be a great person; his efforts got indepen­dence for India from the British; but better still for me, his name and fame got me a much needed book! From that day on, Gand­hiji became more than a historical figure for me, he became a sort of personal hero.”

Adenwalla at the launch with Bal Anand (above) and Mistry (alongside)

The son of Bombay’s Bhikhaji and Jer Adenwalla (Bhikhaji is a frequent contributor to Parsiana’s Readers’ Forum) studied at the J. N. Petit High School in Poona and a technical institute in Bombay. He remains an Indian citi­zen despite having spent 15 years in New Zealand where he edits a newsletter The Parsee Voice of New Zealand, writes on religious topics on the Internet and functions as webmaster for the New Zealand Indian Central Association. In an e-mail to Parsiana, Adenwalla writes that settling in New Zealand presented no par­ticular problems. However he says he is "getting more and more convinced that Zoroastrians in western countries will inevitably be dissolved in the host culture after the third-fourth genera­tion, despite efforts by parents and associations.”

In his speech at the book launch under the auspices of The Wellington Indian Association, Adenwalla had remarked upon the impact of the research on himself: "As the book comes to a completion, I feel a sort of loneli­ness that I will not be ‘walking’ with Gandhiji anymore. During this exercise I felt that I was a fellow companion of the great leader. I felt as if I was with him during his student days in England, and during the 20 years he lived in South Africa where he discovered the profound tools of satya­graha and non-violence. I felt I was part of the non-cooperation movement launched by him as a peaceful protest against British injustice in India. I also felt as (if) I was part of the Dandi March, which was undertaken in the year 1931. And like millions of admirers world wide, I felt the loss on his untimely death in 1948...

"Let us all honor him in the best way we can — and that is by following (in) his footsteps. It is important that we imbibe his teachings in our day-to-day lives, since knowledge and wisdom to be effective has to be practically applied.”