My association with Gandhiji dates back to 74 years ago — even before I was born. My late parents, Gyanwati and Ramchandar Rau, were associated with India’s freedom movement. The Dandi March was a turning point in their lives. My father, then a struggling journalist with Allahabad’s ‘Leader’ and ‘Pioneer’, was actively concerned with reporting the momentous political events of the day as they took place. My mother was a teacher in the Crosswaithe Girl’s College — the only one for women in those days in Allahabad. Indira Gandhi was one of her pupils, as indeed the children of other political leaders.

Being a journalist, my father found himself drawn to the politics of the day and Jawaharlal and Kamala Nehru were my parents’ close friends. At this stage my parents decided to get married. The marriage, which took place on February 2, 1931, was unique. My father, a staunch Brahmin, married my mother, a Christian. The certificate issued to them was the first inter-caste, inter-religious certificate of those days — and its original copy now lies in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi.

I am emphasising this precisely because after their marriage the young couple went to meet Mahatma Gandhi, who happened to be living in Anand Bhavan at that point, to seek his blessings. It was a Monday — Gandhiji’s day of silence. But he wrote as a witness on their certificate: “May you both live long to serve the country.”

I grew up in times when the freedom struggle was raging. As a school child, I participated in a revolutionary march on August 9, 1942, and was jailed for a day. This experience made me extremely proud, young though I was. There were other children too. At school, I had as my classmates and schoolmates Gandhiji’s grandchildren — children of Devdas and Lakshmi (C. Rajagopalachari’s daughter). This meant that there was a great deal of interaction between our family and the Gandhi family. We attended prayer meetings at Birla House together and met Ba and Bapu.

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