Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/41

 thoughts of London made me bold. I had small talk with him in Gujarati. He was quite in a hurry. He saw me when he was ascending the ladder of the upper storey of his bungalow. He said the Porbandar State was very poor and could not give me any pecuniary help. However, he said, I should first graduate in India and then he would see if he could render me any help. Indeed such an answer from him quite disappointed me. I did not expect such a reply from him. Now what I had to do was to ask Parmanandbhai to give me Rs. 5,000. He said he would very gladly give them if my uncle approved of my going to London. I thought this to be rather a difficult task, yet I was determined upon exacting his consent. I saw him when he was busy doing something, and addressed him thus : "Uncle, now tell me what you really think of my going. My chief aim in coming here is to exact your consent." Then he replied : "I cannot approve of it. Don't you know that I am going on a pilgrimage, and is it not disgraceful on my part to say that I like that people should go to London ? However, if your mother and brother like it, I do not at all object to it." "But then," I said, "you don't know that you prevent Parmanandbhai from rendering me pecuniary help by refusing to allow my going to London." Just as I uttered these words, he said in an angry tone: "Is it so? My dear chap, you don't know why he says so. He knows that I will never approve of your going and so he brings forth this excuse. But the real thing is that he is never to render you any help of the kind. I do not prevent him from doing so." Thus ended our talk. Then I gaily ran off and saw Parmanandbhai and word by word related what took place between my uncle and myself. He too was quite angry when he heard this and at the same time made a promise to give me Rs. 5,000. I was quite overjoyed when he made a promise, and what pleased me more was that he swore by his son.

Now from that day I began to think that I would surely go to London. Then I stayed some days in Porbandar and the more I stayed there the more I was assured of the promise. Now here is what took place at Rajkot during my absence. My friend Sheikh Mehtab who, I should say, is very full of tricks, reminded Meghjibhai of his promise and forged a letter with my signature in which he wrote that I stood in need of Rs. 5,000 and soon. The letter was shown to him and it actually passed for a letter written by me. Then, of course, he was quite puffed up and made a solemn promise of giving me Rs. 5,000. I was not informed of this until I reached Rajkot.