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Mahatmaji endeared himself to the author also because of his habit of paying attention to the smallest details and paying proper tribute to deserving persons. When the stenographer wrote 'Sri Aurobindo' instead of 'Rishi Aurobindo' in his report, Gandhiji reprimanded him for doing so and personally inserted the epithet 'Rishi' before the saint's name. This made a deep impression on the author's mind who was Sri Aurobindo's close disciple.
Along with the jubilant moments of Gandhi's life, Dilip Roy also draws the attention of his readers towards his failure in politics. Roy attended the prayermeetings on Gandhiji's invitation. There he noticed the growing discontent of people when the Quran verses were recited. As many Hindus suffered much during the time of partition, they had the ineradicable feeling of despair that Mahatmaji was a friend of the Muslims and not of the Hindus. Even in the tone of Gandhiji, Dilip Roy could notice sadness. Gandhiji was intensely disappointed to see that the national freedom was achieved at the cost of the unity of India. An incident portrayed by the author expresses Mahatmaji's feeling of poignant disappointment which he had to face after the realization of the Indian Independence. After one of the prayer-meetings, Dilip Roy informed him that he had cancelled his Lucknow trip to be with him; Gandhiji was very happy and said that he had wished to happen it like that. At that time, Dilip Roy said: “And how could anything not happen in our country which you wish to happen?" He dropped his eyes, and said: "How I wish what you say in irony were true!"89 When on the next day, Roy sang a song, Gandhiji did not give him his usual look of greeting after the song. Hence, Roy became sadder and understood that "he was weary to the bones... world-weary and... longing for sleep."90
Roy's sympathetic and emotional temperament is disclosed in this delineation of his last visit with Gandhiji which took place in October 1947. He concludes :
“When I left him, my eyes were moist with tears. I was moved by him as never before. And though I tried hard, I could not
shake off the suggestion that I would never see him again."91
Soon after this meeting, he received the news of Gandhiji's assassination on January 30, 1948, when he was delivering a lecture on music at the Calcutta University. By co-incidence he had selected a song which contained a mystic diologue between Mother and Child, in which the weary child longs to sleep in the lap of the Mother. The author's sorrows knew no bounds. He became gloomy and felt feverish during that night. To pay tribute to this great soul, Dilip Roy quotes the following lines from Sri Aurobindo's Savitri:
"My God is Love and sweetly suffers all A traveller of the million roads of life."92
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