About Gandhi's autobiography

Yesterday I received Gandhi's autobiography my experiments with truth from a dear friend as birthday gift .It was my 61st birthday that means i have finished 60 years of living on this earth.

It is written that Confucius had said, you should always respect the youth as they have a great potential.They will be leaders and people of authority in future.Second part of his saying is even more profound here he said if by age 45 a person does not amount to much you do not have to respect them.In that sense I had become irrelevant 15 years ago and i did not even know.

We nurture the young in all different ways so that they may become wise and may help our society progress. Even at a very selfish level that they will take care of the elderly.Even in the west where many times elderly are independent and children do not take care of their parents. System is based on the tax revenue of the young which pays for very young ,elderly as well as disabled .It is like a more efficient model of risk sharing.

Back to the Gandhi's "my experiments with truth".This friend had mentioned that he hoped i would be inspired to write a biography of my own based on this biography.So here are some initial thoughts.Initially when he had mentioned it to me, i took it as if he was just pulling my legs ,now i am not that sure.

That autobiography is well known for the candidness of writing honest inner thoughts ,in various stages of Gandhi's life.He is one of the rare authors who had shared his wildest thoughts to create a relationship of trust with the reader.St Augustine is another who comes to mind in sharing his personal weaknesses , he rose above them and creates a trust rare between writer and reader. Whitman by saying that he had a lot in common with the village drunk , prostitute the poorest laborer and could be him and her,demands the respect given to the highest and even love of dearest of lover.In the process raises his own stature to America's poet.

All three writers mentioned above shared a part of the story ,just enough to let the reader in to their mind and its struggle.Did they hide a lot more by revealing what they revealed, do we live more sinister life to be honest and not to be afraid to share our stories,to be read by our children, loved one's and even our admirers which may not be as bad as people who hate us and will get ammunition to cut us down further. Strangely if one can not be honest with oneself at sixty with grown children, secrets which are not that big and are common among men(and women) will die and we remain in the process part of that wretched masses lost and forgotten only to be remembered by a poet of different era as another anonymous androgynous being to be raised equal to the glory of another Whitman..

Is it fare to share my travails and trials. Can i write about them as happening to somebody else . Could it be done in third person.Should a new persona be created and true story told and may be a code to be left opened for sixty years like they do in presidential papers to protect against political fallout.Would it be better to write in a clear voice and let the chips fall where they may.These questions i am raising once again in an effort to be honest to myself and the readers.