‘Every y yyear on October 2, I think about my father and Gandhi’

Gandhimathi wasn’t supposed to have that name. Her father, K Lingapa, an avid admirer of Mahatma Gandhi, had wanted to name a son after the man, but he had none. He had three daughters; he named the second after Gandhi. Later, after he served in the army during India-pakistan war, he sought the Gandhian ideals of peace and non violence even more.

“My father used to read a lot of books about Gandhi and his life. On what he did, what he studied and about him getting married at the age of 13. He used to tell us about it,” said Gandhimathi, who has been working since she was 18 years old. “Back then not many women went to work at a young age,” she said.

As part of her first job, she cooked for a Mexican couple in Chennai. Now 47, she has worked in a number of expat households and boasts the mastery of many cuisines. “Western, American, Italian, Australian. I like my job,” she said.

Like her father, Gandhimathi is a huge fan of Gandhi. “I like reading about his history. I liked that he preached ahimsa. He got us freedom from the British without lifting a sword,” she said. At present, she is the only Gandhi fan in her family. “My daughter is an MBA graduate and she is married. My son is in his second year of college studying B.com. My daughter and son are not very much into Gandhi,” she said. It doesn’t matter to her. “Every year, on October 2, I think about Gandhi and my father. Even when my father was dying, he made it through till October 2 before passing away. On that day, I pin a small Indian flag to my white-and-gold sari.”