Kalam retraces Gandhi's footsteps in SA

Kalam recaptured moments of history in what he described as the "best part" of his South African sojourn.

Holding Nelson Mandela's hand, President APJ Abdul Kalam retraced Mahatma Gandhi's footsteps and recaptured moments of history in what he described as the "best part" of his South African sojourn.

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Kalam took the mandatory pilgrimage of every Indian leader to South Africa on Thursday as he travelled on the Old Main Line that changed the course of Gandhi's life and, in a way, India's destiny.

Still stirred by the incident that occurred in Pietermaritzburg more than a century ago, Kalam remarked: "Some people have to fight for a cause, and many others enjoy it. Isn't it?"

The 15-minute ride from Pentrich Station to Pietermaritzburg -- where Gandhi was thrown out of a train for travelling in a whites only compartment -- tried to re-enact the historic journey in every way, complete with a steam engine and a 350-seat train straight out of the late 19th century.

Roy Raats, the 63-year-old engine driver, had cranked up the 1927 make engine and put it back into steam just the previous day for the president's journey.

"Mandela rode this train, and the Indian cricket team also came on it -- we are very honoured to take the Indian president today," said Raats, who has named the steam engine after his wife "Billy".

The coaches, all assembled in the 1930s, wear the retro look replete with large windows that have to be pulled down and narrow passageways that make a person edge sideways to pass.

Kalam rode in the coach named "Mooi" that replicates the one Gandhi sat in from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, till a white passenger forced him out of it.

When Kalam arrived at the station, which, too, seems preserved in time, a small crowd of citizens and Indian-origin South Africans followed him as he approached the plaque put up approximately where young Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would have fallen, when kicked out of the train.

"Mahatma Gandhi was evicted from the first class compartment on the night of June 7, 1893. This incident changed the course of his life. He took up the fight against racism and oppression. His active non-violence movement started from that day" -- read the plaque.

Later in a little waiting room within the station, Kalam said this held a lesson for everybody.

"We learn how on that particular day Gandhi did not take it as it is - he started a movement and he challenged apartheid. Whatever the injustice, if you don't fight it, it will not go."

Kalam recalled his meeting with Mandela only hours ago, and his Wednesday visit to the Robben Island prison where the latter was imprisoned for 27 years.

"(Mandela) told me you sent us Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and we sent you Mahatma Gandhi!" Kalam recounted to journalists, not hiding his admiration for Mandela, the architect of the movement that dismantled South Africa's apartheid regime.

The two leaders spent almost half an hour together at the Mandela House in Johannesburg.

Kalam held Mandela's hand as they emerged from the meeting to meet reporters and even when they were exiting the room.

"India is very important to us...that is why I set aside everything else to meet Dr Kalam," said the former South Africa president.

Mandela said India had played a leading role in "certain directions".

"Also it is honouring the democratic system. It is the biggest democracy and quite rightly so, we are very grateful to India," he noted.

Kalam later recounted how he asked Mandela how he suffered prison for so long.

"For me he is an inspiration. I saw the cell that he lived in. He told me -- the body can be tortured but the soul is mighty.'"

When journalists later said they would like to ask the two leaders some questions, Mandela gestured to his hearing aid and quipped: "I cant hear difficult questions."

What followed was a round of questions on issues ranging from the movie being made on Mandela's life by Indian director Shekhar Kapoor to the South African leader's favourite cricketer.

Asked if he would like to act in Shekhar Kapoor's film, Mandela said "Nobody has approached me so far but if you tell them, I'll be willing to help." The film is based on Mandela's autobiography Long Walk To Freedom.

Asked who was his favourite cricketer, he replied: "That's a diplomatic question, I cannot answer that question. If I say who is my favourite, I will be unrecognising the rest.

"No person in my position will make that diplomatic faux pas."

Kalam winds up a four-day visit to South Africa Friday.