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October 17th 1929 - May 1st 2008
Didi's Vision
I
first met Didi, when I went to invite her for a
peace conference. I was surprised to see such a
diminutive frame packed with immense energy and
enthusiasm. This was way back in the late 90s.
She had such a magnetic personality that she
drew us closer and closer to her. One day during
a course of a casual conversation, I asked her
what her dream was, she paused and then smiled.
Then very gently said, "I want to make the
Gandhi Ashram at Kingsway Camp, Delhi into a
Peace Centre where people, scholars of all walks
of life will come stay, contribute and
rejuvenate themselves. " She went on to say that
this place is such a holy place that she had
seen an old Sikh gentleman come everyday to the
Ashram and pick up the dust from the grounds and
smear it on his forehead. She observed this
everyday, one day she asked this person why he
was doing this, he laughed at her ignorance and
said," dear girl, don't you know the great
Mahatma walked on these very premises barefoot?
This is a very holy piece of land and it is like
a place of worship for me." So, she always had a
dream for the Gandhi Ashram to develop into a
hub of peace studies and a centre for conflict
resolution for the entire world. Subsequently,
she called me after a couple of months and asked
me if I could help her to fulfill this dream?
She went on to say, "If I do not do this then
Gandhi ji will never forgive me." Then there was
no looking back. In 2004 Gandhi Ashram
Reconstruction Trust was registered led by Didi
and we started working on her noble dream.
Today, I am blessed that she touched our lives
and guided us and showed us the path of Gandhi
ji. We will continue to work to develop the
Ashram and take her message and vision across to
the whole world, as she said, "Jai Jagat."
(Victory to the World).
She is the last of the dedicated Gandhians and
her loss is mourned by India as a great blow to
peace initiatives. Although she is no more
I still feel her energy guiding us. Like Gandhi
ji and Vinobha ji, she was a woman of action.
Her recent favourite phrase was "Lage Raho"
meaning just keep going! Our best tribute would
be to keep her legacy alive by adhering to her
vision of positivity and action.
May her soul rest in peace.
Vivek Sharma
(Managing Trustee)
Gandhi Ashram Reconstruction Trust
Photographs
Download
Didi's Photograph 1
Didi's Photograph
2
Tributes
H.E. President Of India
Vice President of India,
Shri Hamid Ansari
Governor, Orissa - Shri
Murlidhar. C Bhandare
Governor, Karnataka - Shri
Rameshwar Thakur
Governor, Maharashtra
-Shri Umesh Kashikar
Deputy Chairman Rajya
Sabha - K. Rahman Khan
Speaker,Lok Sabha-Shri
Somnath Chatterjee
Shri Shyam Benegal, Member
of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
Shri Rabi Ray, Former
Speaker, Lok Sabha
Minister of External
Affairs-Shri Pranab Mukherjee
Minister for Information &
Broadcasting - Shri Priyaranjan Dasmunshi
Minister for Tribal
Affairs-Shri Kyundiah
Chief Minister, Tamil
Nadu- Shri M. Karunanidhi
Mr.Ji
Ping, Dy. Director General. Communist Party of
China
Ambassador of France in
India -Jerome BONNAFONT
Dr. Ejaz Ali, Member of
Parliament, Rajya Sabha
Mr. Jayanti Lal Barot,
Former Member of Parliament
Chairman Harijan Sevak
Sangh, Andhra Pradesh- Shri Chennupati Vidya
Chairman Harijan Sevak
Sangh-Gujarat-Shri Ishwar Bhai Patel
All
India Mahila Congress
Jamaat e Islami Hind
Rashtriya Swyamsevak
Sangh-Shri C. Sudarshan
Senator Asif Ali Zardari,
Pakistan
Shri
Rajmohan Gandhi
Edhi Foundation - Janab Abdul Satar Edhi & Begum
Bilquis Edhi, Pakistan
Mr.
Sadanand Ward Mailliard, Sri Ram Centre California
Randy Taran, The Dalai Lama Foundation
John Siliphant, Be the Change,
USA
Prof. Pema Gyalpo, Japan
Rev. Myoe Nakashima, Bodai Isshinji Temple,
Okayama, Japan
Prof. Dr. Primitivo D. Chua, Honorary Advisor,
AMDA International
Dr. Pashupati Regmi, Chairperson, AMDA-Nepal
Dr. S. Kamath, Chairperson, AMDA-India
Dr. Husni Tanra,
AMDA, Indonesia
Smt. Kamala Ratnam
Garfield Lindsay Miller, USA
Dinesh &
Indira Chandra, USA
R. K. Rao,
Cambridge
Himanshu
Priyadarshi, from Georgia, USA
CYDA,
Pakistan
Shrikumar Poddar,
USA
Mirza Aslam
Beg, Pakistan
Dr.
Riffat Hassan, Pakistan
Association
of Peoples of Asia
Arun Wakhlu, Pragati
Foundation
Smt Khem Lata Wakhlu,
M.L.A. & Dr Omkar Nath Wakhlu, Srinagar
Music4Peace,
Tobias Huber, Switzerland
Kreddha, The Netherlands
Sudhanshu
Priyadarshi, PepsiCo, Inc USA
Alexander Kadakin, Ambassador of the Russian
Federation
Ranjan Dey,
Compassionate Chef, USA
Dr. Ravi
Kalia, New York
Tenpa
Samkhar
Akhil
Bharatiya Anuvrath Nyaas
Prasar
Bharti
Acharya
Mahapragya
Deendayal
Research Institute
Dr.
Gurcharan Lal Bhatia
Nishkaamsevi
Samman Samithi
Burmese pro-democracy
movement in India
Memorial Services
Harijan Sevak Sangh, Kingsway
Camp, Delhi 11:00am, May 4, 2008
FICCI - 5th May, 2008,
12:00 noon, FICCI Auditorium, New Delhi
Shrikumar
Poddar, USA,
7 pm Tues, May 6, 2008
East Lansing Public Library,
950 Abbot RoadLibrary Lane East Lansing,
Michigan 48823
India Pakistan
Soldiers Initiative
Leela Kempinski, Mumbai, May 12, 2008
Rajghat
Committee, Akhil Bharatiya Rachnatmak Samaj &
Gandhi Ashram Reconstruction Trust
7:30am, at Rajghat, May 13, 2008
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