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Humility appears to be the striking feature of Mahatma Gandhi to Roy. Once he wrote to the author:
"Much of the reputation that I enjoy in the West is really undeserved and I often think that if I went to Europe or to America, the people there would be soon undeceived about their many exaggerated notions of me. You would believe me when I tell you that I write this not from any sense of false self
depreciation, but because I feel it that way."70
Mahatma Gandhi always felt obliged and not obliging. When Dilip Roy paid him his first visit in Sassoon Hospital, Poona, where Mahatmaji was convalescing, he was very happy to see the author. The author remembers: "His whole face softened in gratefulness, another well-known trait of his beautiful nature."71
Later on, whenever Dilip Roy sang his melodious songs to him, he was equally grateful to him and never failed to appreciate him. Once the author extended his stay in Delhi for a few more days just to remain in the company of Gandhiji. When Gandhiji came to know of it, he expressed his gratitude with a child like joy and sincerity. One may say that childlike innocence was the dominant trait of his personality.
Roy was delighted when Gandhiji, during their first meeting, asked him to sing a song. But he was under the impression that art had no place in the gospel of Gandhiji's austere life and as such, he might be against music. Gandhiji tried to remove the author's doubts by telling that he had loved music, particularly devotional songs since his childhood days. He was all praise for Mira bhajans because of their sincerity and poetic appeal. He felt:
“Her songs well forth straight from the heart-like a spray. They were not composed for the lure of fame or popular applause as are some others' songs. There lies the secret of her lasting appeal."72
Though, he said, he was not familiar with the technique of music, he always was moved by it. He informed the author that when he was convalescing in a South African hospital. his friend's daughter often sang a famous hymnLead Kindly Light and he felt that music could give joy, peace and comfort. Mahatmaji informed Roy that there were many people like him who felt that he was against art. Actually, he claimed he was an artist himself, but people were not ready to accept it, they were treating his remark as a joke. According to Roy, his asceticism was somewhat responsible for such popular misconception, as people found it difficult to reconcile asceticism with art. But Gandhiji said:
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