Children\’s Land

This incident occurred in Noakhali. After the Hindu-Muslim riots Gandhiji toured the area on foot to reassure and comfort the people. He would set off from a village soon after dawn and arrive at the next village after sunset. On arrival he would first attend to his work then he would take a bath.

Gandhiji used a rough stone to clean his feet. Miraben had given this stone to him many years ago and Gandhiji had kept it carefully ever since. He took it with him everywhere.

One evening after they had arrived at a village and Manu was getting Gandhiji’s bath ready, she noticed that the stone was missing. She looked everywhere but could not find it. Read the rest of this entry »

Children loved visiting Gandhiji. A little boy who was there one day, was greatly distressed to see the way Gandhiji was dressed. Such a great man yet he doesn’t even wear a shirt, he wondered. “Why don’t you wear a kurta, Gandhiji?” the little boy couldn’t help asking finally. “Where’s the money, son?” Gandhiji asked gently. “I am very poor. I can’t afford a kurta.” The boy’s heart was filled with pity. “My mother sews well”, he said. “She makes all my clothes. I’ll ask her to sew a Kurta for you.” “How many Kurtas can your mother make?” Gandhiji asked.

“How many do you need?” asked the boy. “One, two, three…. she’ll make as many as you want.” Gandhiji thought for a moment. Then he said, “But I am not alone, son. It wouldn’t be right for me to be the only one to wear a kurta.” Read the rest of this entry »

Abraham Lincoln was driving in his state carriage one afternoon. An old man walking along the road, recognised the American President. He took off his hat and bowed in respect.

Lincoln responded to his gesture by tipping his hat and bowing in return.

One of his companions riding in the carriage with him told the President,”Why did you have to do that? After all he was only a poor man!”

“I don’t want anyone to be more courteous than I,” said the gracious President with a smile.

In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before.

Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built.

Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge. Read the rest of this entry »

Mahatma Gandhi went from city to city, village to village collecting funds for the Charkha Sangh. During one of his tours he addressed a meeting in Orissa. After his speech a poor old woman got up. She was bent with age, her hair was grey and her clothes were in tatters. The volunteers tried to stop her, but she fought her way to the place where Gandhiji was sitting.

“I must see him,” she insisted and going up to Gandhiji touched his feet. Then from the folds of her sari she brought out a copper coin and placed it at his feet. Gandhiji picked up the copper coin and put it away carefully.

The Charkha Sangh funds were under the charge of Jamnalal Bajaj. He asked Gandhiji for the coin but Gandhiji refused.

“I keep cheques worth thousands of rupees for the Charkha Sangh,” Jamnalal Bajaj said laughingly “yet you won’t trust me with a copper coin.”

“This copper coin is worth much more than those thousands,” Gandhiji said. “If a man has several lakhs and he gives away a thousand or two, it doesn’t mean much. But this coin was perhaps all that the poor woman possessed. She gave me all she had. That was very generous of her. What a great sacrifice she made. That is why I value this copper coin more than a crore of rupees.”

During the American War of Independence, the commander of a small unit of soldiers was giving orders to his men about the heavy cannon that they were trying to lift to its place at the top of some fortifications. It was almost beyond their power to lift the weight, and the commander kept shouting encouraging words.

An officer, not in uniform, was passing by, and he asked the commander why he did not help the soldiers. Greatly surprised, the man turned round and said proudly, “Sir, I am a corporal!”

“Oh, you are, are you?” – replied the officer. – “I did not know that. I beg your pardon, Mr. Corporal”.

Then he got off the horse he was riding and, taking hold of the rope that the men were pulling at, he pulled with all his strength. And when the cannon was in its place, he turned to a little great man and said, “Mr. Corporal, when you have another job like this and have not enough men, send for you commander-in-chief, and I shall gladly come and help you”.

The corporal was struck with astonishment. The man who had helped his soldiers was George Washington.

The earliest known portrait of Washington, painted in 1772 by Charles Willson Peale, showing Washington in uniform as colonel of the Virginia Regiment.

More on G. Washington, the 1st President of the United States, you can find here.