Remembering My First Gandhi Legacy Tour

Alok Tiwari

My first Gandhi Legacy Tour, was in 2000, only the third ever, and I didn’t have a grey hair then. India and Pakistan had a war in Kargil sector of Kashmir in the middle of the year. The hyper-sensitive tourist business took a nosedive. I, as a free-lance tourist guide, was out of work. Three precious months of tourism, starting October, in north India were gone but I hardly had any work. 

Then I heard from the Indian agency that was newly handling the operations of the Gandhian Legacy Tour. It was of such high importance that the owner of the agency was supposed to escort the group. However, closer to the date, he had to travel abroad during that period so he couldn’t go. The next in line, the manager, was reluctant to leave home for two weeks at a stretch and another senior person in the agency was a devout Muslim and the tour was overlapping the holy month of Ramadan and Eid so he also opted out. I got a call as the last possible choice of the agency to guide the tour.

I was given the brief that Dr. Arun Gandhi and his wife Sunanda would be travelling with the group. I half-listened to all the brief about the Gandhis and what I was supposed to do while on tour. It was not your typical stereotyped tour.

I didn’t remember much of it by the time I left the office. What was important was that I would be employed for two more weeks in January. After a week, I took an overnight train to Mumbai. Y2K bubble had fizzled out and a new dawn brightened the sky.

An everlasting relationship with Dr. Gandhi (Appa) started and he insisted that I escort all the future tours that he leads in India.

I am the only one who is paid to be on the tour but money ceased to matter many years ago. In fact, I have turned down many lucrative offers in favour of this tour. I look forward to these two weeks eagerly each year and it was a grave disappointment when once the tour did not operate a few years ago due to lack of participants. However, the tour once again bounced back to life with the efforts of the new team.

My job is not only to execute the operations of the tour for two weeks but having escorted a dozen Gandhian Legacy tours, my responsibility is also to fine tune the itinerary and make it viable operationally. Not only our leaders but participants also have given us many valuable suggestions in the past and we have used their feedback for improvement of the tour.

The tour is about empowerment. Not the type which leads to dominance but the one which attempts to induce inclusive growth of the society at the grass root level. One important way it is achieved is by making connections. I feel honoured and privileged to be of assistance in this endeavour of Appa and Tushar.

I look forward to be on tour with you this year!

Alok Tiwari