From government servant to being the Mahatma's secretary

Chennai: We walked into his house with the image in our mind of a frail old man carrying a stick; but before us stood a spry 85-year-young man with a twinkle in his eyes and a memory as sharp as a needle.

Born on Aug 15, 1922, V. Kalyanam was personal secretary to Mahatma Gandhi.

A reluctant secretary to the Mahatma, the sprightly Kalyanam has often hit the headlines for the wrong reasons, more recently for facilitating some of Gandhi's writings to reach a London auction house and earlier for saying, "...ever since, Gandhi misused me".

Kalyanam said: "My father was a government servant. I was brought up in Delhi and Simla (now Shimla). We all knew Gandhi had called for independence, but we left it at that. We read about the freedom struggle in the newspapers. I often wondered, why we needed freedom. The cities were spotlessly clean; we had everything we needed."

In 1942, Gandhi gave the 'Quit India' call and was imprisoned in the Aga Khan Palace on August 9. From that day, Kalyanam's destiny changed.

"One day, some friends talked of helping Gandhi's cause. They gave me some pamphlets printed in English and told me to insert then quietly under the doors of Indians in my neighbourhood. I did not even read what was written on them. As luck would have it, I was spotted doing this by a hawk-eyed Anglo-Indian policeman.

"In a few days, I was sent to the jail in Lahore."

Kalyanam was let off in about eight months and returned to his job in Delhi. One day Devdas Gandhi asked him if he would like to go to the "ashram". "I went for two months."

Kalyanam spent his time tending the fields, and sorting letters that came for Gandhi, who was still interned. Two things had happened meanwhile.

"Mahadev Desai, Gandhi's assistant, who was also at the Aga Khan Palace, died of a massive heart attack Aug 15, 1942, within a week of Gandhi being arrested. He was Gandhi's right hand, his counsellor, Desai was as great a strategist as Nehru and Gandhi. I was a mere clerk compared to Desai," said Kalyanam.

Soon, Kasturba Gandhi too died. Gandhi was ill.

"The British never wanted him to die in their jail. They released him unconditionally in 1944. He spent some time after that in Mumbai, at shipping magnet Shanti Morarji's bungalow. I went to see Gandhi for the first time.

"He asked me several questions in a low voice. And one of them was: could I type? I still did not understand what he wanted. But soon, I was taking dictations from him... though I hated desk work. That is why I say, Gandhi began 'mis'using me! Till his dying day."