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Grandfather Gandhi

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about the book

 

How could the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi get angry so easily?

When he was eight years old, Arun Gandhi traveled with his family to visit Grandfather Gandhi in his small ashram village in India, where the Mahatma lived with some of his followers. The village is silent, but that doesn’t mean it felt peaceful to little Arun. A black thread of anger swirls around him, and when an older boy pushes him on the soccer field one day, Arun lets loose all his anger and frustration.

Tearfully Arun runs to his grandfather, ashamed that he cannot control his anger like a true Gandhi. Grandfather Gandhi is not mad, though.

Instead, Grandfather tells Arun that anger is like electricity. If there is a lot of it and it is uncontrolled, it is like lightning, destructive and dangerous. But if it can be channeled, then anger can be like the electricity in power lines, controlled to power light bulbs. It can turn darkness into light.

Will Arun learn his lesson?

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about the author

Arun Gandhi was born in 1934 in Durban, South Africa, the fifth grandson of Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi. Arun grew up under the apartheid hated by both “white” South Africans and “black” South Africans. At first Arun practiced “eye-for-an-eye ethics” against the people who hated him, but then his grandfather began teaching him about non-violence and how to manage his anger.

Now Arun has fully adopted his grandfather’s way of life and travels the world to share those lessons.

After being forced out of South Africa, he and his wife, Sunanda, decided to move back to India, where Arun became a journalist for The Times of India. Arun and Sunanda started a number of social and economic projects, following his grandfather’s advice about using constructive programs to help the oppressed. Over half a million people in some 300 villages have been helped through Arun’s programs, and the programs continue to grow.

Sunanda died in 2007, but Arun continues to do the work he and she began. In addition, Arun has become the author of several books.

Source :
Author website

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