The Danish Peace Academy
GANDHI AND NORDIC COUNTRIES
Collected by E. S. Reddy - EReddy@aol.com and Holger TerpLetter, October 4, 1917
Ranchi,
October 4, 1917
Dear Esther,
I have not been able to write to you as often as I should like to have. I must let you share one of the richest experiences of life. Contrary to my expectation and owing to great strain, I was down with malaria, just when I could least afford to have illness. I had to attend the Committee work every day. Quinine was the drug prescribed. I would not take it. My faith has saved me. I missed not a single meeting and we signed an unanimous report yesterday.37 I believe I have seen the last of the illness too. I have not the time to go into greater detail but when we meet you should ask me to give you the details of this experience. I take it you have read my letter to the Press on the railways.38 If you have missed it, you should ask the ashram to let you have a copy.
You were quite right [in] not coming to Madras.39 Love must be patient and humble. It is the rich and leisurely who can afford to be demonstrative in their love. We humble folks have naturally a different and better method of showing love. True love acts when it must, meanwhile it daily grows silently but steadily. In Motihari from 7th to 13th. Then Ahmedabad.
Yours,
Bapu
Source:My Dear Child, pages 22-23; Collected Works, Volume 13, page 562
37 Report of the Champaran Agrarian Enquiry Committee. Collected Works, Volume 13, Appendix XI.
38 “Letter to the Press on Third Class Travelling on Indian Railways,” September 25, 1917. Collected Works, Volume 13, pages 547-51.
39 Gandhi was in Madras only for a few hours on September 14-15
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