Crackling wit in khaddar

A beautiful biography in pictures, Unfolding Rajaji, Eastwest Books, brings alive the austere, yet magnetic and humourous world of an early generation of leaders

Rajaji and Mountbatten: The Mountbattens got engaged in 1922 in room 13 of the viceregal lodge in Simla. At the time, Rajaji was in room 65, Vellore jail	Rajaji told Gandhiji “it is not salt but disobedience you are manufacturing”. His own Vedaranyam salt march with a band of 100 loyal followers created some stellar leaders	Rajaji, along with his children, stayed in a mud hut at Tiruchengode ashram (seen in the picture) for 10 years. Nehru said: “Rajaji looks upon the cottage as a palace and the palace as a cottage”
Gandhi said of Rajaji: “He is the keeper of my conscience...He thinks at least six months ahead of me.” At other times, he fondly called him “my jailor”	Prolific writer: “My books on the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are my greatest service to my people”
It needs three things to make a truly great person - a man’s brain, a woman’s heart and a child’s freshness of outlook... Pride of any kind including the pride of humility is bad	Reflections: If I had not been a lawyer, later a politician, later still, a functionary without responsibility, I would very much like be born as a girl and become a nurse	Rajaji always kept this picture by his bed. Once during an important foreign affairs meeting, Nehru and he differed. Nehru said, “You see Rajaji, the majority is with me.” He replied, “Yes, but logic is with me.” Nehru changed his view