The gates of Hyderi Manzil, or Gandhi Bhawan, as it is called these days, remained closed till 10 a.m. on August 15, 2022, when the caretaker of the building arrived and started wiping a marble statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the courtyard. The national flag was unfurled only after spells of rain stopped, well past 11 a.m., with a dozen people who disappeared as quietly as they had arrived.
A pocket watch, a lantern, wooden slippers, charkhas, a metal tumbler, and a walking stick; all personal items used by Mahatma Gandhi remain in the fasting room, which hardly had any visitors today. Termites have surfaced on the very first frame of the yet-to-be inaugurated exhibition on the Father of the Nation. Gandhi Bhawan felt as lonely in the 75th year of Independence as it was on August 15, 1947, when Gandhi stayed in this single-storey house on the day the country got its freedom.
“As it happened, Mahatma Gandhi was not present at the festivities in the capital on August 15, 1947. He was in Calcutta (now Kolkata), but did not attend any function or hoist a flag there either. Gandhiji marked the day with a 24-hour fast,” one of the panels of the exhibition reads. “He was residing at this address, Hyderi Manzil, which was decorated with the Indian Tricolor by Hindu and Muslim volunteers,” it says, highlighting the historical significance of the place.
