When I first landed at "OR Tambo International airport", Johannesburg, on 14th May 2013, I was carrying some cash of Indian rupees with US dollars. First thing that I noticed was, dollars could speak universal language whereas Indian rupees had some other stories to tell. It was not possible to exchange our currency with the local South African currency i.e. RAND but South Africans could recognize the father figure of our currency. Yes, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
We Indians on hearing Gandhi, visualize the imaginary figure of an old man wearing dhoti, holding a stick and wearing spectacles in our mind. But this young statue of Gandhi below changed my illusory figure and made me travel back to Johannesburg virtually between 1906 & 1913, when Gandhi as a young professional lawyer came here by an invitation from an Indian merchant in South Africa. His first encounters with racism gave birth to a non-violence protest that has been enormously influential throughout the 20th & the 21st centuries.
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| Statue of young GANDHI |
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| Can't imagine Gandhi without dhoti & spectacles |
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| Red Bus for the city tour |
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| My brother & I on the rooftop |
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| Our friendly guide Iphrame |
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| Me capturing the Rainbow nation |
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| People on their way to work |
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| Woman bus driver that we haven't seen before in our country |
When I went to South Africa, Nelson Mandela was alive. The living legend was/is considered as a god figure of the country. My brother & I were curious to get a glimpse of Mandela and our guide Iphrame while taking us on a ride around Mandela's house said that he was lucky to see him couple of times there going for morning walk with his bodyguards.
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| Picture was taken outside Mandela house |
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| Mandela was there inside at that moment |
After having tea with Mandela (in my imagination), we went to Nelson Mandela Square that is linked to Sandton City and is one of the most fashionable destination in Johannesburg, offering some finest restaurants, exclusive couture & designer labels, boutiques and sidewalk cafes.
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| Statue of the legend at Nelson Mandela Square, that was unveiled in March 2003 as a celebration of 10 years of democracy in South Africa |
"Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again"--
