When the news leaked out that Mahatma Gandhi‘s personal belongings were going under the hammer on March 5, there was a public outcry in India and the Indian officials tried to persuade the Californian collector to sell these to them. But so far the collector has refused do so.
Why? Because the Indian government was giving him low payment for such a precious collector’s items, which include Mahatma Gandhi’s Zenith pocket watch, steel-rimmed spectacles, a pair of sandals and an eating bowl and plate, with a reserve price of between $20,000 and $30,000.
“A California collector who plans to sell possessions once owned by Mahatma Gandhi says he has rejected a ‘generous but small’ offer from India and barring a last minute agreement Thursday’s planned auction would go ahead,” reports India’s The Economic Times quoting IANS.
“James Otis, 45, from Los Angeles, has agreed to meet Indian officials at 10 am Wednesday in the company of Lester Kurtz, Professor at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia.
“Otis an avid collector of Gandhi memorabilia has for the past decade been working with Kurtz, a leading scholar on Gandhi on three projects, including a four-hour television documentary titled ‘Peaceful Warriors-A History of Non-violence’.” More here…
In an eariler news story the US-based collector had said that he would donate the Mahatma Gandhi memorabilia if the Indian government agreed to spend five per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on the poor. See here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.