The Coimbatore house where Mahatma Gandhi stayed, is now a memorial

An almost-forgotten tile-roofed house in which Gandhi stayed for two days during his visit to Coimbatore, has been turned into a memorial with a library and photo gallery

Gandhiji had had a long day. He was on the Coimbatore leg of his journey in the Madras Presidency, collecting funds for his Harijan Welfare organisation. It was 11pm by the time he arrived at the guest house at Podanur, a suburb in Coimbatore. But he was not ready to retire for the night; not when he had accounting work to do — funds collected in Coimbatore were one-fourth of the entire amount collected in the presidency. It was 2am by the time he went to bed, and he was up at 4am.

This was on February 6, 1934.

Eighty-eight years later, I walk into the same house, and stand at the entrance of the tiny room where Gandhi did his accounting. A lantern sits in a corner, near a low table. A white mattress is spread along a wall, and a charkha stands in front of it. Dusk has just passed and in the brief moment when traffic slows down and silence fills the air, I feel the weight of the moment.

The house has been open for public viewing from October 2. Anything could have happened to it over the years following Gandhi’s visit: it could have been demolished or changed beyond recognition. But it has survived, giving people a chance to recall the life and times of a man who visited it.

The house belongs to the family of inventor and entrepreneur GD Naidu, known for his contributions to engineering. It has now been restored as the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial House, featuring a photo gallery, library, semi-open conference space, and displays of replicas of artefacts used by Gandhi, such as his spectacles, Ingersoll watch, rosary, and the charkha.

The tile-roofed structure sports a thinnai (front courtyard); on the walls inside, are photos with descriptions on the importance of GD House and events that transpired during Gandhi’s visit, such as the laying of the foundation stone for Sri Ramakrishna Vidyalaya. ‘The GD Naidu bungalow was occupied by the Vidyalaya,’ reads a display. On the morning of February 7, he laid the foundation stone in front of the house, after students sang a prayer song.

A small library is coming up inside an adjacent room and at a building nearby, a photo gallery takes viewers through the life story of Gandhi. There are photos of letters he wrote to important people, such as Tagore; a note in his well-known simple handwriting; there even is a copy of his Matriculation exam results from 1887.