9. Poverty Makes You Shiver

It was freezing cold in Delhi. At that time Gandhiji was staying in Birla Bhavan. Before the morning prayers, he would wash his face with freezing cold water. Anybody watching him would think that he would better use warm water. He would decline it if someone suggested so. He would say, "Why burden someone to warm the water?"

In that winter, finishing the morning prayers, he saw a big heap of used postal envelopes. He took the scissors and started cutting them neatly. He made a writing pad from those papers. He couldn't tolerate the wastage of paper in a poor country like ours. While cutting the envelopes, his hands started shivering with cold. To dissuade him from doing it in that cold weather someone said, "Bapuji, you are shivering with cold." Bapuji replied, "No, I am not shivering with cold. This natural cold is beneficial for the body. But the thought of our countrymen and their poverty does make me shiver," and he continued cutting the envelopes.