Champaklal Speaks

My Nature

On 7 February 1933 my mother, Umiyaben, came here for a visit. After some days she told me, “Now I want to go back.” All I asked was, “Do you really want to go?” And she replied, “Yes. I must go because your father is there. Should I nor go?” When she thus spoke of her duty, what could I do? I did not argue and kept quiet. Since going back was a matter of duty for her, naturally there was nothing for me to say. Finally she left on 2 April.

Some days after she had reached home, my elder brother wrote to me. In substance what he wrote was this: “Our mother really liked to be in Pondicherry. While here, because of arthritis, she can hardly walk and there in Pondicherry, she says, she could even run! She was also very happy with the Mother. But then you did not persuade her to stay on, so she came back. She says, 'Actually I wanted to stay longer, bur Champak never asked me.'“

This surprised me greatly. When she talked of her duty to leave and go back to her place, should I have insisted on her staying back?