Bombay now and then.

The Gate of India, Mumbai.On my arrival in Bombay in 1982 I remember watching the waves come crashing over the Gate of India in awe. The torrential monsoon-like rain led me to the dry and safe haven of the cinema where I saw the film 'Gandhi' and first became aware of his non-violent tactics, or 'Satyagraha' in his struggle towards Indian independance. With his Civil Disobedience the Mahatma Gandhi wrenched the freedom of his nation from the might of British Colonialism. But it came at a terrible cost, the partition of India, which he so vehemently opposed. It was a price he never wished to pay, a tragedy that haunted him until the end of his days and ultimately cost him his life. He died in 1948 aged 78, at the hands of an assasin, one of his own people. His last words were 'He Ram!', 'Oh God!'