That's awesome, thank you.

That reminds me of my memory in India. We were living in Mumbai in 1960s and there was a press office of a very famous newspaper right in front of our apartment building in an upscale neighborhood. I was 5 years then. The owner had a national reputation for his powerful speeches, wits and jokes too. We used to read about it, had lessons on him in school textbooks etc. [en.wikipedia.org]

Time went by, we moved to 3 other cities and I was 25 when I was back Mumbai for college and work. It so happened that the public accounting firm I was working for had an audit of the same newspaper. The owner was long dead and his grandchildren were selling the newspaper. I was on the audit team, worked long hours and one day could not go back home. It was too late. So I was given the bedroom of the original owner to sleep in. I had read about stories that he had died in that room and people saw his ghost. I slept well that night and the rest is history.

@St-Sinner And that reminds ME of a "Mumbai memory!" We were taken to a house there where Ghandi stayed when he was in town. We saw some of his shoes, his loom, etc. I asked if it might be possible to stay overnight but, sadly, the answer was an emphatic NO. So, we splurged and stayed at the Taj Palace....where terrorists murdered so many people. Glad you weren't haunted!

Sorry...that's the Pera PALAS hotel. (Sheesh._)

@pamagain

Gandhi stayed at many places and he traveled a lot. The previous ruling party Congress idolized Gandhi during their 55 year rule since independence because the first prime minister's (Nehru) association with Gandhi was close during the freedom struggle with the British. However, Nehru's future generation played it up even more since Nehru's daughter Indira happened to get married to a Parliamentarian called Feroz Gandhi (no relation to Gandhi), Feroz was a Parsi (originated from Persia). So Indira's last name became Gandhi. Now the political savvy was to play up the word Gandhi as much as possible and keep the aura, memory and association around the word alive and going. It worked for 50 years. People worldwide thought Indira was Gandhi's daughter and people outside India still think the major opposition figure today and Indira's daughter-in-law Sonia... is Gandhi's granddaughter. Sonia is Italian, born in Italy and married Indira's son Rajiv who became prime minister after Indira Gandhi was killed.

Long story short, politicians took advantage of population's ignorance and overplayed the Gandhi card. People have got tired of Gandhi and Nehru names after 60 years. I hated Gandhi anniversary in school because those bastard made us clean the damn schools. We were just 6 to 10 years old kids. We even had a mandatory cotton knitting class on Gandhi's spinning wheel and had to submit bundles of knitted cotton in order to pass the fucking class. I climbed the classroom window at night, stole the cotton bundles and submitted the homework. I got straight As. That's how much I hated the overdoing of Gandhi. India's missed the whole industrial revolution because of this stupidity.

Later on, I read more about Gandhi and found out that he was not that great of a man. He was just played up to the populace.

Leaving government rules alone, I have heard that Turkish people genuinely admire him, not under fear. Would you agree?

@St-Sinner I agree but just like the religious fanatics many have made him into a god.

@jackjr
From what I have heard he was against religious fanaticism. Maybe by nationalists?

@St-Sinner Yes he was but he still could not buck the cultural norms especially after his death. I saw all this while living in the country. They had some strange traditions/laws, For instance a couple of us were once in Istanbul and hired a cab. We were warned to be prepared to run as if the driver hit a chicken (there were a lot running around) one had to pay not only for the chicken but if it were a hen one had to also pay for a couple of generations of lost baby chicks. The fine was levied to the users of the cab not the driver. Many wanted to go to the large, famous mosque. People don't wear their shoes inside and there are people hired to watch the shoes. For outsiders (one of the guys that visited the Hagia Sophia) found their shoes were missing when they came out.

@jackjr

Yes, that is what most people experience. I have had difficulties living in other places even for 2 to 3 week vacations. Another country is made by those people for them, not for us. After being used to our ways of life, many things look weird to us. Many expats who moved to Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam and even Indian Americans who moved to India moved back to the U.S. I tried testing out how living in India would feel like in retirement for 5 weeks. I took a lot of money but just could not tolerate the dirt, dust, pollution, excessive religion, noise on loudspeakers, noise even after midnight, crowding everywhere but my friends and extended family were perfectly happy and proud what they had. I was desperate to get the hell our of India. I have heard this story from many others and indeed this has been a problem for Westerners who are used clean things, the way of life, rule of law and sense of civics.

@St-Sinner My late partner, from Iran always wanted to go to India. In 2014 we made a trip to Vietnam (with my brother and his Vietnamese wife - she had not been back since she escaped in 1997) and spent a month going from Saigon (where the wife was from) to Hanoi all on our own, no tourists group, my late partner changed her mind. It was bad enough with the crowds and filth India would be even worse so that idea was gone. I and she also heard many stories of parents maiming their own kids in order to get more money begging.

@jackjr

I have not heard of parents maiming own children for begging. It's unthinkable even in poorest slums but these things are documented:

~ Poor parents sell their children to have enough to eat or pay debts. This happens in North India where religion and poverty are high, The South is better, it less mixed with descendants of Northern invaders for 3,000 years and they have been able to control their ways of life. But their own cultural baggage remains, such as child marriages, polygamy, polyandry, excessively high dowry even today

~ Kidnapped, trafficked children as young as 6 months are raised, made to and sometimes maimed to beg in streets. This is referenced in the movie "Slumdog Millionaire". It is a known fact in Mumbai

~ People's apathy is so high that they are just numbed by reading, hearing and seeing these things. I have seen them for 25 years. I have lived in slums temporarily. I was determined to get out the hellhole after seeing things up-close. Never understood love for India by the nationalists and false pride of people of India. Being born in India and especially poor is the worst thing that can happen to a human being in India.

@St-Sinner Several people I know went there and they all reported this maiming.