02 November,2010 07:17 AM IST | | Urvashi Seth
Obama, who once said that if given a chance, he would prefer to have dinner with Gandhi his "real hero" may not ever be able to do that, but he is sure to get a grand Gandhian welcome this Saturday at what was once the Mahatma's residence, Mani Bhavan.
The Gandhi Museum at Laburnum Road features on the itinerary of the US President's visit to the city this weekend and the team at Bhavan has decided to emulate the traditional way of greeting guests during Gandhi's time: with a garland made out of khadi.
US security officials visit Mani Bhavan on Monday
The executive secretary of Mani Bhavan, Meghshyam Ajgaonkar, said, "This is a traditional way of greeting a guest since Gandhiji's time.
We have decided to welcome the US President in the same way, where he will be presented with a garland made of khadi. Earlier, khadi used to be spun on the charkha but nowadays you won't find anyone using it. We have a few of these (charkha-spun khadi garlands or sutalis) with us and we are going to use the same."
Now a museum and a research centre, Mani Bhavan was the Mahatma's residence during his visits to Mumbai.
Ajgaonkar said that since Mani Bhavan is a heritage site, there isn't much they could do to perk up the place for Obama's reception.
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"We cannot make any physical changes to the museum. We wanted to do a lot but with the restrictions we have, we decided to keep it simple. The president will be here for half an hour and it will be an honour to receive him," Ajgaonkar added.
The core team at Mani Bhavan is working on sprucing the place up by undertaking sundry repairs, replacing faulty lamps and so on. "Apart from the traditional welcome, our trustee Vasant Pradhan will present him a copy of the Mahatma's autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth," Ajgaonkar said.
The museum will remain shut for tourists from November 5 to 7. "As per the US consulate's request, we have given them all information about our employees and trustees, who will be present during the visit. We will hand over the museum to the security agencies on November 5," said Ajgaonkar.
History ofu00a0Mani Bhavan
Mani Bhavan is a simple, old-styled, two-storied building on 19, Laburnum Road, in Gamdevi. Whenever Gandhi was in Mumbai between 1917 and 1934, he stayed here.
The Mahatma's friend Revashankar Jagjeevan Jhaveri and the Mani family owned it. It was here that he initiated the Non-Cooperation, Satyagraha, Swadeshi, Khadi and Khilafat movements.
In 1955, the building was taken over by the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi in order to maintain it as a memorial to Gandhi, to his frequent stays, and to the political activities he initiated from there.
The Home Rule Movement, Gandhi's decision to abstain from drinking cow milk, andu00a0 his association with the charkha (or the spinning wheel) also began here.
