THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Laxman Ghole almost guffawed when he first came across Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography, ‘My Experiments With Truth’. It was the title of the book that intrigued him; it seemed to tease his practical worldview.
He too had experimented, Laxman thought, with different methods of extortion and violence. He had also heard, while in school, of scientists who conducted experiments with metals and liquids. But an experiment with truth, that was way beyond his comprehension. How can anyone in his right mind do such a thing, Laxman asked himself.
This was why he had to stifle a laugh when he first held ‘My Experiments With Truth’ in his hands. He was then at Thane Jail in Mumbai, kept there as an undertrial. A local ganglord under the notorious Chotta Rajan, Ghole had 19 criminal cases against him.
As he flipped the pages of the Mahatma’s autobiography, initially out of a lazy curiosity to know what this guy called Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was up to, Ghole became aware of a strange nothingness within. He went back and re-read the book. Then, he directed a question within. ``Is there at least a drop of truth inside me?’’ There was none.
The revelation made him seek a new beginning. He wrote a letter to the Judge, confessed to all his crimes and sought the maximum punishment. The Judge was seemingly moved. Instead of an eight-year imprisonment, he sentenced Ghole to just two years and two months in jail.
And once he was released, which was last year when he was only 31, Laxman Ghole joined Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal, an organisation devoted to the teachings of Gandhiji. And ever since, he has been travelling the length and breadth of the country spreading the Mahatma’s message.
On Tuesday, Ghole was at the Press Club here, along with Dr Radhakrishnan, the national chairman of Indian Council of Gandhian Studies. The reformed criminal was in whites; white khadi shirt tucked inside white pants. A maroon jute bang was slung diagonally across his torso. He was lean, slightly curved, had a tender school-boy moustache and an endearing smile and looked so harmless that it was hard to imagine him as a former henchman of Chotta Rajan.
Before he appeared before the media, copies of articles about his transformation that had appeared in Mumbai newspapers were distributed. The pictures in these articles show a man more fiercer and authoritative, the kind who will never look out of place in a prison.
But the man facing the media seemed like an antonym, looked massively transformed. Radhakrishnan said Ghole stumbled upon Gandhi while taking part in the courses on reconciliation and courses to discover Gandhi organised in the Nashik jail. Meanwhile, Ghole carefully took out a square wooden box from his jute bag and opened it like a book in front of him.
He spoke in Hindi and seemed eager to talk. Before he could warm up to his subject, the time was up. The people who were to address the press next were already moving towards the dais. Radhakrishnan cut Ghole short, said thanks to the media and walked out with his guest.
Radhakrishnan was upset that Ghole was not given time to articulate his mind. Ghole looked a bit lost. We asked him about the box that he spread like a book in front of him. He suddenly brightened up. He took it out once again. ``It is the charkha. A miniature version,’’ Radhakrishnan said.
We took him to the second floor of the Press Club where he sat on the floor, opened the box, fixed the clamps, adjusted the levers, placed the thread on the pulley, took out a clutch of raw cotton from the jute bag and began spinning. The fine cotton thread that he conjured up, he added to a thick twist of fine white thread he had with him.
``There was a time when I had fantasised about a wooden box which when opened will, like in some English films I have seen, hide a gun,’’ Ghole said.