Termites feasting on Gandhi books in his ashram
February 21st, 2010 - 2:12 pm ICT by IANS ( 1 comment )Gandhinagar, Feb 21 (IANS) Books on Mahatma Gandhi are an endangered lot in his own hermitage, the Sabarmati ashram in Ahmedabad. Over a hundred books on the Mahatma and some of his photographs were consigned to a fire last week after termites feasted on them.
“What else do you expect if books are dumped in damp godowns and not brought out for airing or sunshine regularly,” an ashram insider told IANS. The dampness seeping into the godown from an adjoining toilet is said to be the culprit.
Amrut Modi, the Sabarmati ashram chief, told reporters Saturday that during checking of books kept in the ashram godown, about a hundred books were found to have been damaged by termites.
“We took them out and set them on fire along with some photographs which had been damaged beyond repair.
“The rare books are all safe and well taken care of,” he added.
There are over 3,000 books in the godown.
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Tags: ahmedabad, amrut, culprit, dampness, godown, hermitage, hundred books, insider, mahatma gandhi, photographs, rare books, sabarmati ashram, sunshine, termites, toilet
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:29 am
(1) The “service book” of a government servant, a friend of mine, was found to have been eaten up by termites a few weeks before he was due to retire. He had to reconstruct the whole thing from his personal records, otherwise he would not have been able to draw his pension!
(2) I heard from a former colleague of mine, that huge plate-glass windows (imported originally from Belgium) of a government office in Chennai, that had been taken down and kept in storage when World War II broke out, were found “missing” after the war was over. The Director of the office declared they had been eaten by termites and had them written off.