Our Bapu - Mahatma Gandhi

Our Bapu
15. Death of Kasturba and Mahadevbhai
Days at Agakhan Palace
"Bapu must have been very comfortable in that palace?" asked Hari.
"No, my son, how could Bapu, the friend of the poor , the father of Our Nation,
how could he be comfortable, living away from his suffering and sorrowing
children? He could find no peace inside that large and luxurious palace. Bapu
could never find happiness, if he could live and spend all his time with the poor
and the lowly.
Even in that palace he lived like a poor man. He would get up early in the
morning, say his prayers, take a little fruit juice and then get busy with his
work. All his associates would have their meals with him, and the poetess
Sarojini Naidu, the Nightingale of India, would entertain him with his jokes and
anecdotes. There would be prayers again in the evening, and then they would
all settle down to some more work. And then they would retire early, after
having worked the whole day.
Loses his dear colleague
Mahatmaji had been in detention only for a few days, when his old and trusted
colleague, Mahadev Desai, died suddenly of heart failure. Gandhiji and
Mahadev Bhai had been very closely associated with each other for over thirty
years, and Bapu loved him as his own son. Mahadev Bhai too had dedicated his
life to Bapu and to the country. They had shared each other's joys and sorrows:
Bapu would open out his heart to him, and he would always give Bapu his frank
and well-considered opinion on all matters.
Bapu bathed Mahadev's body with his own hands and then decked the bier and
performed all the funeral rites himself, even as a father would have done. The
funeral pyre was lighted in a comer of the palace garden, and a memorial was
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