avdhesh srivastava. Met him on the train from Villupuram. Benarasi. Works for a shipping company. Laughs a lot. Talks a lot. Heres what he told me:

1. Which is the land where even your fields with full grown crops can be stolen?...while I was smiling in my heart over how gullible these villagers were, one of his fellow Biharis had the answer ready! "Kashmir". In the small window between that the answer came and I turned red-faced I remembered the amazing cruise on a shikara when our guide showed us famous the floating vegetable gardens of the Dal Lake.

2. "Was Gandhi really against non-violence? No. Once Gandhi went to an ashram. when he reached there
he found a snake had entered in the room he was supposed to occupy. After trying to make the snake go away two or three times people asked Gandhiji what was to be done to which he replied...kill him". People wondered how could Gandhiji the perpetrator of Nonviolence could say such a thing. He replied, " It is non violence in its singularity that I preach. The foundation rests in logic that we could never meet the british in force. So why make a foolish attempt?"

Don't know if avdhesh's fables have any truth in them....but even if they arent.....one cant stop wondering how a simple man from the hindi heartland has turned, twisted, adapted Gandhi's principles to suit his cause...guess it works.

Gautham. Driver. 24. Tamil Nadu. Met him while he drove the taxi around Tamil Nadu. His brother's getting married. Smiles a lot. Content. His mom gave me a 5 rupee coin when I touched her feet. Wants to get settled before getting married himself. His brother's getting married, works on the family agricultural land. "Land not enough", says Gautham. Broken English. White Driver's Uniform.