Early one afternoon in 1928, when the celebrated Bengali artist, Mukul Dey

Early one afternoon in 1928, when the celebrated Bengali artist, Mukul Dey , was staying at the Sabarmati ashram, where he did some of his brilliant sketches of Gandhiji , a, man who was obviously the worse for drink entered the Mahatma’s room . Gandhiji was sitting at the charkha , spinning. The man, who came from the other side of the river, made a lot of noise and disturbed everyone in the room – except Gandhiji , who continued to spin serenely. Kasturba began to cry, and Mukul Dye was so angered by this noisy and drunken intruder that he was about to get up and forcibly remove him .Recalling this incident during his visit to London in the winter of 1959 for an exhibition of the works at south Kensington, Mukul Dey chuckled as he described how Gandhiji remained perfectly calm and unruffled by the noisy and aggressive demeanour of the drunkard, who complained that he was hungry and wanted food.Gandhiji said to the man with great patience, “Acha, Bapu, what do you want ?”,recalled Mukul Dey. The man replied, “I am hungry, Mahatmaji , I have had no food”. What he really meant, laughed Mukul Dey, was that he wanted some more drink. It was about three in the afternoon, and in the ashram Gandhi had his meal about mid-day.        Gandhiji then said to then said to the man, “acha, you can eat here, you can have whatever I have”, and he asked for the food to be brought to the man, but the man said in a whining voice, “Mahatmaji, I have a wife and children who are also hungry”.Gandhiji replied, “alright, I will feed all of them, bring them here to the ashram”.Of  course, he didn’t really want food, he wanted money to buy more drink, so he said, “but my family are on the other side of  the river. If I get some money , I can but some food and take it to them” .In his quiet, calm voice Gandhiji replied, “I am a beggar myself, I have no money here. Other people give me whatever money I need. But what-ever I have in my ashram in the way of food, I will give you if you wish”.The man then realised from Gandhiji’ s patient answers that he was not going to get any money for drink, and he left the room quickly, after making his obeisance to Gandhiji . We all felt relieved, and were moved by the way in which Gandhiji had spoken to the man as a friend of brother.