Letter from Gandhiji to Sarojini Naidu, June 14, 1919

Steamer Mercara
June 14, 1919

My dear friend:

A beautiful, calm, swirling sea has succeeded a week of angry storm-tossed waters, and it is somewhat symbolic of my general condition... I too am beginning to feel calm and smiling. It does not behove me to judge the other epithet except perhaps as regards my clothes!

The passengers are like myself responsive to the better weather and I have no doubt that by the end of the voyage all the sick and sorry hearts of men and women will find healing and strength according to their varied needs!

Mrs. ???, Ramaswami and ??? make a cheery (?) trio. And Jinnah sits aloof in haughty isolation from all the world and his little wife never leaves her cabin, poor child.

People are just beginning to thaw towards one another. (The heat is enough to melt even British ice!) There is one dear old ICS demi-god who loves to talk to me, a monologue against satyagraha and Home Rule - he is very - ?? on someone called Gandhi and I have the greatest fun in teasing him. Sir Thomas Holland is on board and he is of course very interesting though antagonistic in his friendly fashion.

The further I go away from India the more my heart clings to it and I am full of anxiety as to what is going to happen during my absence. I should love to have been with you through every stage of the battle and to have shared every difficulty and danger.

But you know that at present with my broken health I should have been, save in spirit, a poor soldier - and so I go to recover my health, renew my spirit and reestablish all my faith and hope - perhaps charity - (the old Caritas) firmly beyond all change.

And so my friend, whom I am proud to call my leader and guide, Namaskar. I carry your benediction with me as a talisman, and in return I send you - and through you to my comrades - faithful affection and greeting.

Sarojini Naidu

One line by way of postscript to my letter already posted - to say that I have only just heard that the Lyceum Club has shifted its quarters, so my safest address will be c/o Thomas Cook & Sons, Ludgate Circus, London, EC.

Yours
Sarojini Naidu

I hope Chandra Sekhara has duly arrived and received your instructions about.

From: SN 6652