New Delhi, Jan 29 (IANS) This is where he walked his last steps before collapsing with a peaceful 'Hey Ram' on his lips, forgiving even in death his assassin. Sixty years after that day 'when the light went out of our lives', Mahatma Gandhi's spirit forces introspection at the sprawling white bungalow in central Delhi now named Gandhi Smriti.
The lane where the house stands is now called Tees January Marg after that Jan 30, 1948 when the world's greatest apostle of peace was felled by a bullet fired by Nathuram Godse. The house is 5, Tees January Marg. A mere address that is so much more for the nation.
And as India observes Wednesday as Martyrdom Day, children at Gandhi Smriti, or Gandhi Memories, look inwards to see what Mahatma Gandhi really meant to them. Even amidst the buzz of getting ready for the function that will be attended by President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
'Do I follow Gandhi's thoughts? Yes and no! I don't use abusive words against anybody,' says Sheetal Panwar, a Class 8 student. 'But, I do lie,' admits her classmate Sajal Jain, shamefacedly, 'and I do fight, but not with punches.'
Hauling their bags, the two students of St Paul's in south Delhi school are looking at the small canopy marking the exact area where Gandhi fell at 5.17 p.m. on Jan 30, 1948.
The two are among the many schoolchildren in the complex, where marigold garlands hang from fences, strings of little bulbs line paths and awnings of white cloth billow in the chilly breeze.
As they walk in the weak sunlight, children in a dozen different school uniforms sit in clusters, sharing their food or talking animatedly. Meanwhile, workers run from one end to another, looking busy, sometimes armed with a can of paint or hauling a cart, laden with wooden boards or potted plants.
About 1,500 school students are rehearsing Gandhi's favourite hymns for the prayer meeting to mark the 60th anniversary of the assassination.
For others, this is where Gandhi moves out of textbooks to become a real figure, who lived - and made a difference.
Inside the two-storey whitewashed building, 54-year-old Hannah Thomsen, a Danish tourist, moves from one wall panel to another, reading quotes from Gandhi.
'I first thought, is this a school?' laughs Thomsen. She and her husband have come to take a look at the place because 'like Hans Christian Andersen is identified with Denmark, for us, India means Gandhi'.
On the covered walkway beside the extensive lawns, Tia Shuyler and her family read the story of the 1942 Quit India movement.
Her father, William Shuyler, points to his daughter as the 'prime motivator' for getting them to Gandhi Smriti on the last day of their India sojourn.
'I had studied about Gandhi in my school, but it was really in context of his spirituality, where he is grouped along with Martin Luther King Junior and Mother Teresa,' says Tia, 23, a student of political science from the US. 'I was more interested in learning about his political views.'
During her first visit to this country, Tia has often been asking herself what the Mahatma would think of modern India. 'In fact, when I saw the traffic here, I asked my mother, what would Gandhi think about it.'
She feels it is time for another Gandhi. 'I am very glad that he was in India, but we need somebody like him right now in America.'
As news came in that terrible day, India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru said over All India Radio: 'Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere...'
He then went on to say in an unforgettable, moving speech: 'The light has gone out, I said, and yet I was wrong. For the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light. The light that has illumined this country for these many years will illumine this country for many more years later, that light will still be seen in this country and the world will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts.'
The warmth of that light still shines, as is evident from just a walk through Gandhi Smriti.
