Neither a Saree nor a visiting Card!
Gandhi ji was a stickler for punctuality.
One day a khadi worker named Hanumanth Rao was ushered into his room full ten minutes late for his appointment at 4:00 PM. Gandhi ji asked him, “Why have you come late?”
Hanumanth Rao answered, “It is because I neither have a starched saree nor a visiting card.”
“What do you mean?” asked Gandhi ji.
“I came punctually five minutes before my appointment, but your volunteers did not allow me to enter your room. They were favoring rich men with visiting cards and women wearing starched sarees! I had neither.”
Gandhi ji laughed, but he also understood what was happening in his own house.
January 7, 2006