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1. LETTER TO CHILDREN OF BAL MANDIR KARACHI, February 4, 1929 CHILDREN OF BAL MANDIR, The children of the Bal Mandir1are too mischievous. What kind of mischief was this that led to Hari breaking his arm? Shouldn’t there be some limit to playing pranks? Let each child give his or her reply. QUESTION TWO: Does any child still eat spices? Will those who eat them stop doing so? Those of you who have given up spices, do you feel tempted to eat them? If so, why do you feel that way? QUESTION THREE: Does any of you now make noise in the class or the kitchen? Remember that all of you have promised me that you will make no noise. In Karachi it is not so cold as they tried to frighten me by saying it would be. I am writing this letter at 4 o’clock. The post is cleared early. Reading by mistake four instead of three, I got up at three. I didn’t then feel inclined to sleep for one hour. As a result, I had one hour more for writing letters to the Udyoga Mandir2. How nice ! Blessings from BAPU From a photostat of the Gujarati: G.N. 9222 1 An infant school in the Sabarmati Ashram 2 Since the new constitution published on June 14, 1928 the Ashram was renamed Udyoga Mandir. VOL.45: 4 FEBRUARY, 1929 - 11 MAY, 1929 1 2. LETTER TO ASHRAM WOMEN KARACHI, February 4, 1929 SISTERS, I hope your classes are working regularly. I believe that no better arrangements could have been made than what has come about without any special planning. Take full advantage of these arran- gements. Rasik’s condition can be described as really very serious. I do not know whether he will be alive when this letter reaches you. But we try to learn every day that birth and death are two facets of the same thing. He who is born dies, and he who dies is born again. Some do escape this cycle, but neither they nor the others need rejoice at birth or grieve over death. I realize this and, therefore, remain unconcerned. Rasik has recently become a votary of the Ramayana, and we feel, therefore, that he enjoys complete peace inwardly. I should like you women to make the kitchen and the infant school a shining success. Do not tempt the children to eat spiced food. You will see in future that such restraint has benefited them. You must have discovered by now that abstaining from spices ordinarily does the body no harm. It is a different matter, of course, if some persons who have become addicted to spiced food cannot change their habit. Think over this matter. It is entirely in your hands to stop the children from making noise. You should try and lighten Gangabehn’s burden. You may get from her other services too. You should fix her hours of work and, during certain hours, should not permit her to enter the kitchen at all. You should give up the idea of getting ghee from anywhere except Chharodi. If you can get no ghee from there, you should learn to do without it. It has practically been proved now that linseed oil does no harm whatever. So long as we get milk and curds, it does not matter too much if we do not get ghee. Do set a limit to the quantity of vegetables cooked. Make it a rule that not more than ten tolas of cleaned vegetables are cooked for each person. 2 THE COLLECTED WORKS OF MAHATMA GANDHI These changes require your mental co-operation. That is, you should accept them with your heart and mind. You have got to train yourselves for work in the Bal Mandir. Now that a teacher has been appointed specially for this—and he is an able person—you can get all the training you need. I shall reach there on the 16th evening instead of the 15th. Since I arrived here a day late, one day will be wasted. Blessings from BAPU [From Gujarati] Bapuna Patro—1: Ashramni Behnone 3. LETTER TO PURUSHOTTAM GANDHI February 4, 1929 CHI. PURUSHOTTAM, You ought to see to it that your physique improves. And it would be a great thing if you could do this while you live in the Ashram. However, I do not insist on that. If you are not confident that you can build your body in the Ashram you may go to Hajira. It is the best place we can think of. For my part, I am certain that you will do well to take water treated with the sun’s rays admitted through glass bottles of different colours. I have again gone through the chapter on the subject. Fill with water a bottle of orange yellow colour, keep it in sunlight and use the water for drinking. Note the effect. The gruel made from wheat bran taken in the morning is also likely to help. Consult Chhotelalji about how to prepare it. He himself will prepare the bran for your use. Personally I would like to keep you with me for some time during my tour and help you to make your body strong. Your idea about Wardha is of course right. Till I return, adopt the remedies which I have suggested and make up your mind about what you will do afterwards. Blessings from BAPU From the Gujarati: C.W. 895. Courtesy: Narandas Gandhi VOL.45: 4 FEBRUARY, 1929 - 11 MAY, 1929 3 4. LETTERS TO CHHAGANLAL JOSHI Silence Day, February 4, 1929 CHI. CHHAGANLAL, I hope you got the two letters I wrote to you during the journey. A postcard, too, is a letter. The portions concerning women in the accompanying letters — to Kishorelal and to the [Ashram] women—are of general inte- rest; therefore show them to all. You should read all letters en- closed in an envelope addressed to you. When any such letter is not meant to be read by you, I shall write the word “personal”on it. You should spare sufficient time from your daily work for general supervision over everything. Think in advance of the time which each matter is likely to require, and try your best to finish it within that time. Keep a note of things to be attended to later and make it a habit to consult this note every day. Such a practice lightens the burden on one’s memory. No one can carry in his memory all matters to be attended to. I shall return there a day later. The programme here got upset and, owing to Monday being a silence day, alternative arrangements could not be made except by extending the programme by a day. Make your body strong as a rock; this is possible. You should take more milk and ghee. If oil agrees with you, I am not particular about ghee. If your stomach can digest almonds, I think you will need no ghee at all. But you may make that experiment after I return there. You yourself should take charge of Vimu1 and Dhiru2, or Rama3 should learn how to bring them up. They are fine children, and only require proper attention. I am writing all the letters for today in the early morning. The post is cleared early and, since I chanced to get up at three, I sat down 1 Addressee’s daughter and son 2 ibid 3 Addressee’s wife 4 THE COLLECTED WORKS OF MAHATMA GANDHI to write letters. Compared to the temperature there, it is less cold here. People say that the weather has changed since yesterday. I experienced no difficulty in travelling third class. For half of the way there were very few passengers in the train. Everyone had enough space to sleep during the night. The only difficulty was about the lavatory. We, therefore, bought a second-class ticket for the professor from Abu to Hyderabad, and he and Subbiah1 went and sat in that compartment by turns. This enabled the latter to do his typing work and the articles for Young India to be typed and dispatched. We saved nearly fifty rupees by travelling in this fashion, apart from the greater peace which I enjoyed. I could see that people liked my having resumed third class travelling. Blessings from BAPU From a phootstat of the Gujarati: G.N. 5383 5. LETTER TO GANGABEHN VAIDYA Silence Day, February 4, 1929 CHI. GANGABEHN, Remember well the two things I mentioned to you in connection with Kaku’s clothes. Give up your desire to work as hard as you possibly can. You ought to spend at least four hours a day outside the kitchen. To guide the other women assisting you, maintain an inventory of all the things. If even after that something should get lost or spoilt you need not worry. Think what you would do if you were to fall ill for four hours every day. Our aim, after all, is to see that the organization runs. Running an organization means that the work is carried on not by one individual but by even new persons trained for the purpose. This should be so for all our departments without exception. No work should depend on any one person doing it. This means that we who are working at present must train others for our jobs. Don’t think that it is Kusum alone who should have fixed hours of work. Having fixed hours of work is part of running an 1 Gandhiji’s secretary VOL.45: 4 FEBRUARY, 1929 - 11 MAY, 1929 5 organization.

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